THE 

UNEXPECTED CHRIST 

A SERIES OF 
EVANGELISTIC SERMONS 



BY 

RET. XOUIS AliBERT BANKS, D. D. 

PASTCK FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 
CLEVELAND, OHIO 

AUTHOR OF "CHRIST AND HIS FRIENDS," "THE FISHERMAN AND HIS FRIENDS," 
"PAUL AND HIS FRIENDS," "HEROIC PERSONALITIES," ETC. 



NEW YORK 
WILBUR B. KETCHAM 

7 AND 9 WEST EIGHTEENTH STEEET 



Copyright, 1898, by 
Wilbur B. Ketcham 




TO MY FRIEND 
JESSIE ELIZABETH BELL 
THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED 
BY THE AUTHOR 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Unexpected Christ 7 

The Expectant Christ 17 

The Lost Christ 28 

The Borrowing Christ 39 

The Blessed King 48 

The Cost of a Christian Life . . . .58 
The Corner- Stone op a Noble Life . . .69 
Christ Cleansing the Temple of the Soul . 82 

Christ as the G-ardener 93 

The Coin op the Heart 103 

The Beauty op Service ...... 112 

Jesus at Matthew's Dinner ..... 122 

The Three Good Cheers op Jesus . . . 132 
Christ with the Wild Beasts .... 143 

Christ the Soul's Master 156 

For Love's Sake 166 

Sharing the Inheritance with Jesus . . . 177 
The Messenger of Salvation .... 188 

The Ideal Character 198 

Christ's New Road to Heaven .... 210 
Three Christian Certainties . . . . 220 

5 



6 CONTENTS, 

PAGE 

Christ the Pardon-Bringer 230 

The Lord of Peace 241 

The Keeping Christ ...... 251 

The Heroic Christ 263 

The Angel in the Garden 275 

A Friend of Jesus Warming Himself at the 

Enemy's Fire 284 

Christ Fainting under the Cross . . . 297 
Christ Triumphing on the Cross .... 307 
Human Life as an Evergreen .... 317 



THE UNEXPECTED CHEIST. 



Jesus himself drew near, and went with them." — 
Jjuke xxiv. 15. 

Most Bible-readers have taken it for 
granted that both of these two disciples of 
Christ who were taking this walk to Emmaus 
and to whom Christ paid this unexpected 
visit were men. Only one of them is named 
— Cleopas. Mr. Moody has recently raised a 
question which is new to me, but which seems 
to me to be very well sustained, suggesting 
that the disciple not named was Mary, the 
wife of Cleopas. John tells us that one of the 
three Marys who remained at the cross after 
the crucifixion of J esus was Mary the wife of 
Cleopas, and I agree with Mr. Moody that it 
does not seem at all probable that Cleopas 
would go off into the country seven or eight 
miles and leave his wife in the city in the 
perilous times in the midst of which the disci- 

7 



8 THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST. 



pies found tliemselves after the trial and cru- 
cifixion of Christ. It seems, therefore, very 
reasonable to suppose that these two disciples 
mentioned were Cleopas and Mary, the uncle 
and aunt of Jesus. 

These two near relatives and friends of 
Christ evidently had their home at Emmaus, 
and in this sad trial which had come to them 
in the death of one whom they had loved all 
his life, and whom during the last few years 
they had come to trust as their Eedeemer and 
Lord, it was very natural that they should go 
to their home. " Be it ever so humble, there's 
no place like home"; and especially is this 
true in a time of sorrow. The curiosity of the 
world is very trying then, and one longs to 
get home, where he may be free from prying 
eyes and questioning tongues. 

As they walked along the way they were 
talking over all the strange and wonderful 
events connected with the trial and crucifixion 
of the Saviour, dwelling on little details, no 
doubt, as one will, concerning a great tragedy 
which leaves the soul stunned and in awe. 
All their hopes were buried in the tomb, and 
the glory of the Easter truth had not yet il- 
luminated their hearts. As they thus walked 
and talked, their attitude as well as their 



THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST 



9 



words showiiig the sorrow wMch depressed 
them, a stranger drew near and joined them. 
He who appeared to Marj^ Magdalene in the 
garden in the form of a gardener, to Abraham 
as a traveler, and to Joshua as a soldier, ap- 
peared to these disciples as some strange 
teacher, some wise rabbi, passing through the 
land. They did not know it was the Christ 
about whom they were sorrowing. A sure 
way to find Christ is to talk about him to an- 
other friend who loves him with the same 
tenderness as ourselves. The promise of his 
presence where two or three are gathered 
never fails. We rob ourselves of a great deal 
of Christian joy by hiding in our hearts, so 
often, the longing, hungry thoughts we have 
about Jesus. If we would talk more with 
each other concerning him our experience 
would be sweeter and richer. 

Christ still comes to his disciples in unex- 
pected places. It is not necessarily in the 
church that we shall find him, but wherever 
we need him and our longing hearts cry out 
for him we may expect him. He has not de- 
serted his world. He visits the market-place 
now as in the days of old, and even a tax-col- 
lector may know his presence as did Zacchseus 
or Matthew. He does not fail to pause in 



10 



THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST. 



sympathy where the unfortunate are, and 
blind men and poor may yet hear the sympa- 
thetic call of him who stopped on the road to 
Jericho to open the eyes of blind BartimsBus. 
He who was the fishermen's friend by the 
little Sea of Gralilee, and who liked to go fish- 
ing with Peter and John, and watch them as 
they mended their nets, will not scorn the 
docks or the fishing-boats of our own time. 
The Carpenter of Nazareth has not forgotten 
his brethren of the hammer and the saw. In 
all the common ways of life where men toil 
and dig, where they bargain and trade, where 
they feast or faint, where they rejoice at the 
wedding or mourn at the funeral, Christ is 
still in his world, and hearts going out after 
him in loving memory may not be surprised 
to find him coming to walk with them by the 
way. They may not always know who he is 
until he is gone, for that many times happens 
to us, but afterwards looking back we know 
that it was the Christ. 

The presence of Christ communing with 
us, causing our hearts to burn with gladness, 
fills the Scriptures with meaning and makes 
the Bible yield treasures that on other days we 
would not find. You might bring me a basket 
of minerals from the Klondike, and looking 



THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST 11 



at them I would know that here and there a 
specimen contained gold, because I could see 
occasional points of a yellow tinge; but many 
other light and dark points I would not under- 
stand. But let a metallurgist glance at the 
specimens and he would not only know that 
they contained gold, but silver and lead and 
iron, and could indicate each metal. So to a 
man untaught of the Spirit the Bible will 
have here and there a hint of golden trea- 
sures, but when he comes under the teaching 
of Christ he sees revealed on every side riches 
before undreamed of. "There are promises 
in God's Word that no man has ever tried to 
find; treasures of gold and silver in it that 
no man has ever taken the pains to dig for. 
There are medicines in it for the want of a 
knowledge of which hundreds have died." Mr. 
Beecher once said that the Bible seemed to 
him like some baronial estate that has de- 
scended to a man who lives in a modern house 
and thinks it scarcely worth while to go and 
look into the venerable mansion. Year after 
year passes away, and he pays no attention to 
it, since he has no suspicion of the valuable 
treasures it contains, till at last some man 
says to him, " Have you been up in the coun- 
try to look at that estate ? " He makes up his 



12 



THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST. 



mind that he will take a look at it. As he 
goes through the porch he is surprised to see 
the skill that has been displayed in its con- 
struction ; he is more and more impressed as 
he goes through the halls. He enters a large 
room, and is astonished as he beholds the 
wealth of pictures upon the walls, among 
which are portraits of many of his revered 
ancestors. He stands in amazement before 
them. There are splendid paintings by Titian 
and Raphael, and Correggio. He says, " I 
never had any idea of these before." " Ah ! " 
says the steward, " there is many another 
thing that you know nothing about in this 
castle " ; and the keeper takes him from room 
to room, and shows him carved plate, and 
wonderful statues, until the owner exclaims, 
" Here I have been for twenty years the 
owner of this estate, and have never before 
known what things were in it ! " But there 
never was such an estate as G-od's Word. 
There are no such halls of paintings as those 
found in the Old Testament Scriptures. There 
are no such treasure-vaults of golden wisdom 
as may be found in its Proverbs; no such 
libraries of poetry as in the Psalms and the 
Book of Job. No wonder Cleopas and Mary 
remembered afterwards and said to each other, 



THE UNEXPECTED CHRIST. 13 



" Did not our heart burn within us, while he 
opened unto us the Scriptures," for he began 
at Moses and came along down over the high 
plateaus of prophetic uplands, and set a blaz- 
ing torch on the hill-tops where Moses, and 
David, and Isaiah and Daniel had foretold 
his own coming. To their astonishment the 
Old Testament Scriptm'es revealed a high- 
way, lighted with the flame of prophetic light 
all the way from the beginning of Grenesis, 
that led ever onward toward their own time 
and to the Messiah who had been their 
Leader. Christ will open the Scriptures like 
that to us when we meditate on him and on 
them. 

The sweetest touch in the story is where 
they reach the home of Cleopas and his wife, 
and Jesus, who has not yet revealed himself 
to them, makes as if he would go on. We 
cannot doubt that he would have done so if 
they in their keen interest had not urged him 
to remain. Christ will not force his love upon 
us. It is ever the characteristic of a great 
love that it wishes to be desired and appre- 
ciated. But they constrained him to remain 
with them to their evening meal. I think 
with Mr. Moody that this is another indica- 
tion of the fact that it was indeed Cleopas and 



14 



THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST. 



his wife, and not two men who were only 
friends stopping at the same place. A hus- 
band and his wife together might natm^ally 
give an urgent invitation to a stranger whose 
company had been so precious to them, and 
in the light of whose conversation their great 
sorrow had passed away and hope had taken 
its place. And while the evening meal is be- 
ing prepared Christ talks with them, and after 
a while, when it is ready, he breaks bread with 
them, and tenderly blesses it, and in that act 
of worship he is revealed to their hearts and 
they know it is their risen Lord whose fellow- 
ship has given them such great joy. 

Let us not fail to learn this great lesson : If 
you would come to know Christ as your risen 
Lord and Saviour you must not only meet 
him on the highway of human life, and listen 
to his conversation, and be moved to admira- 
tion at the charm of his presence, but you 
must constrain him to come home with you 
into your inner heart experience. If you con- 
strain him to enter into that fellowship of 
soul he will not only charm you with his con- 
versation, but he will dispel yom^ sorrows, par- 
don your sins, and transform your life into his 
own likeness. No doubt I speak to some one 
who needs just this appeal. You have heard 



THE UNEXPECTED CHBIST 



15 



of Christ many times, your heart has been 
drawn out to him in admiration, and you do 
not hesitate to admit that among all the 
names in history his is the fairest and the 
noblest. But all your meetings with him 
have been, as it were, upon the highway. 
You have never invited Christ into the temple 
of your own heart and home. Only in that 
way can you really come to know him and 
realize his power to save. 

A minister in Philadelphia preached on a 
recent Sunday evening on "The Greed of 
Grold." He called special attention to the fact 
that at the bottom of most of the institutions 
of our land which hurt rather than help is the 
desire for wealth. Among other things he 
mentioned the liquor traffic. Early the next 
morning there came into this minister's study 
a fine-looking, intelligent man about forty 
years old. As he entered the room, before 
giving his name or telling his mission, he 
spoke thus, earnestly and nervously: "Is it 
better for a man to sell liquor or starve?" 
This was his story : He was the traveling rep- 
resentative for a large distillery in another 
city. In the interest of this business, for 
which he had been successfully soliciting for 
years, he came to Philadelphia. He had gone 



16 



THE UNEXPECTED CHEIST. 



to the churcli with another commercial trav- 
eler on Sunday evening, and the minister's 
sermon had been an arrow from the quiver of 
God straight to his heart. He left the church, 
went back to the hotel, sent that very night a 
letter to the firm for which he was traveling, 
and whose remuneration for his services was 
generous, resigning his position and saying 
that he could no longer conscientiously repre- 
sent them. " And,'' said the manly man be- 
fore he left the minister, "last night I slept 
with a sense of peace and security such as I 
have not enjoyed for years. I have no pros- 
pect for a new position, but upon this I am 
determined: I shall starve before I sell another 
drop of liquor. God help me ! " At noon the 
next day the minister was in conversation 
with one of the leading business men of his 
church, to whom he told this story. Imme- 
diately upon hearing it the merchant said, "I 
am in need of just such a man." In less than 
twenty-four hours he was in an honorable 
position with a good salary, illustrating the 
words of Christ : " Seek ye first the kingdom 
of God, and his righteousness; and all these 
things shall be added unto you." 



THE EXPECTANT CHRIST. 



" From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made 
his footstool." — Hebrews x. 13. 

had fainted, unless I had beheved to see the 
goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait 
on the Lord : be of good courage, and he shall 
strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." — 
Psalm xxvii. 13, 14. 

DuKiNG the war of the rebellion, when vic- 
tory was swaying from side to side, the com- 
missioners from the Confederate States, in an 
interview, which they obtained with President 
Lincoln, sought to compromise with him on 
condition of the independence of a part of 
the States in rebellion. They knew the ten- 
der-heartedness of Mr. Lincoln, and appealed 
to him to stay the effusion of blood which, at 
the moment, was flowing in torrents. These 
commissioners were willing to forego several 
of the States for which they had hitherto 
fought if he would consent to the remainder 

17 



18 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST 



being independent. They pleaded with him 
for hours, and made use of the strongest argu- 
ments and considerations they could adduce 
to gain their object. "When they had finished, 
the President, who had patiently and atten- 
tively listened to all that had been said, 
raised his hand, and then bringing it down 
with emphasis on the map which lay before 
him, replied: "Gentlemen, this government 
must have the whole." 

Jesus Christ confidently expects the dawn- 
ing of the day when all his enemies shall be 
made his footstool, and he shall hold sway 
over all the nations of men. Before his cru- 
cifixion he declared, " And I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
His expectant eye ran down the line of his- 
tory and saw the day when the cross would 
become a battle-cry for millions and a watch- 
word for the liberty and hope of mankind. 

It is this expectant attitude of Jesus which 
gave him while on the earth undying enthu- 
siasm and ever-fresh courage. The fact that 
the majority was against him, that his gospel 
of peace and love and purity had all the hate 
and greed and bloodthirstiness of the world 
against it, never caused him to hesitate for 
a moment. To his expectant vision all the 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST, 



19 



devils were dethroned. Sure of his di\diie 
power, certain that love is stronger than hate, 
rejoicing in his beneficent mission to the 
world, his enthusiasm never waned in his 
struggle for the salvation of the human race. 
His hope was not in any earthly power, but 
in the saving influences of divine love. 

If we turn from Christ to David, we find in 
him also a perennial fountain of enthusiasm 
and courage, because his hope was centered 
not on earthly things, but on the faithfulness 
and benevolence of God. Throughout all his 
youth, from the day that Samuel called him 
from his flock of sheep in the Bethlehem hills to 
pour the anointing oil on his head in prophecy 
of the day when he should be king, David 
was surrounded by enemies who were treach- 
erous, cruel and powerful. Many times, like 
a hunted fox, he was chased to some den or 
cave on the mountain-side, and, like the Mes- 
siah that was to come, had not where to lay 
his head. But throughout all these experi- 
ences, in his psalms, which are the breathing 
out of his heart to Grod in bursts of thanks- 
giving or appeal inspired by his own expe- 
riences, you see revealed the secret of his lofty 
courage and unquenchable enthusiasm. His 
fa;ith was not in man but in Grod. He was of- 



20 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST. 



ten deceived and found those whom he trusted 
to be treacherous, but he did not despair be- 
cause of that. At such a time he would cry 
out: 

Put not your trust in princes, 

Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 

His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. 

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 
Whose hope is in the Lord his God : 
Which made heaven and earth, 
The sea, and all that in them is ; 
Which keepeth truth for ever : 
Which executeth judgement for the oppressed; 
Which giveth food to the hungry : 
The Lord looseth the prisoners ; 
The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind ; 
The Lord raiseth up them that are bowed down } 
The Lord loveth the righteous ; 
The Lord preserveth the strangers } 
He upholdeth the fatherless and widow ; 
But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 
The Lord shall reign for ever. 
Thy God, 0 Zion, unto all generations. 
Praise ye the Lord." 

What are you going to do with a man like 
that? — when some powerful prince has gone 
over to Saul, his enemy, and the news comes 
like a blow straight between the eyes, and he 
i turns himself about and takes up his harp and 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST, 21 

sings a song like that ? Notliing earthly can 
daunt a man's enthusiasm whose expectancy 
is not in man but in God ! 

We lose our enthusiasm because it has been 
aroused by such little things, and is not nour- 
ished by a sufficiently worthy purpose. 

About twenty-five years ago a farmer's wife 
up in the Province of Ontario was searching 
the woods surrounding their farm for a cow 
that had strayed, and, becoming thirsty, 
stooped to get a drink from a spring. Slip- 
ping, she fell against a small loose rock which 
rolled to her feet and which proved to be a 
twenty-pound nugget of almost pure gold. 
Within six months of this discovery a city 
called Bridgewater sprang into existence with 
five thousand inhabitants. An immense quarry 
of purest white marble was discovered near, 
and the town was practically built of marble. 
It is the only town in the world which has a 
hotel, church, school-house, court-house, and 
the great majority of its dwellings constructed 
of white marble. Strange to say, although 
enormous sums of money were spent in sink- 
ing shafts, there was never enough gold dug 
out of the entire district to pay for the sink- 
ing of a single shaft, and to-day that marble 
town is like Goldsmith's Deserted Village," 



22 



THE EXPECTANT CHRIST 



almost entirely without inhabitants. It was 
built up on a wave of enthusiasm that had no 
real gold-mine to back it. Who of us does 
not remember such deserted enthusiasms 
along the pathway of our own lives ? There 
have been times when we have thrown our 
whole selves into something that has seemed 
of great importance and out of which we ex- 
pected to obtain great good and blessing, but 
no real gold of happiness came from it, and 
to-day it is only a reminiscence of a deserted 
enthusiasm. 

But I am sure that for every sincere Chris- 
tian there is one enthusiasm that does not 
lose its interest as the years go on. Other 
interests may come and go, but if you have 
given your heart to Christ and come into per- 
sonal communion and fellowship with him, 
then the happiness of serving him and the 
expectation of becoming like him and living 
with him in glory forever not only does not 
wane, but it waxes more splendid as the 
things of earth lose their hold with the pass- 
ing years. 

All great Christian work must be accom- 
plished in this spirit of expectancy. We 
never can do our best when we go dragging 
our feet along the ground. The best work of 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST. 



23 



the world is done by people who walk on tip- 
toes in expectant attitude^ rejoicing in the 
blessed privilege of Christian service. Such 
an expectancy of victory in our work for the 
Lord makes the smallest ser^dce worth doing. 
Lucy Eider Meyer tells of one of the Chicago 
deaconesses who was ill, and was taken to a 
hospital. While there she was put under the 
influence of chloroform for a surgical opera- 
tion. As she began to recover consciousness, 
she looked up into the physician's face and 
mm'mured, "Doctor, what do you do with 
your old clothes ? " She had her poor parish 
on her mind, and was all the while expecting 
a windfall in their direction. She had the 
same spirit in her work that gave Spurgeon, 
and has given every great soul-winner, his 
greatest power — the expectancy of victory. 
Spurgeon made a man feel while he preached 
that the preacher expected he would then and 
there give his heart to Christ. A young man 
who visited London went to hear Spurgeon in 
his great Tabernacle. He "WTote home to his 
mother that night, " They tell me that there 
were six thousand people present; but it 
seemed to me while he was preaching as 
though I were the only one in the congrega- 
tion, and he were pleading with me." God 



24 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST. 



give us the same expectation of victory in the 
performance of our daily duties ! 

This holy expectancy keeps us from faint- 
ing by the way. Well may David say, " I had 
fainted, unless I had believed to see the good- 
ness of the Lord in the land of the living"; 
but the heart that was ready to faint was 
nerved again by the conviction that it is not 
the devil's world, but God's. Though wicked 
men and devils may make a great deal of 
noise, no real harm can come to those who 
love God, and whose expectation is in him. 
What a splendid illustration of this same kind 
of holy expectancy of faith we had in Mr. 
Gladstone in the great suffering through 
which he passed in the closing days of his 
life ! He courageously remarked one day to 
one of his friends who was condoling with 
him on his affliction, ^'It is a great lesson." 
How that takes all the bitterness out of it! 
He was not the plaything of some heartless 
chance, or the foot-ball of some cruel fate, 
but a pupil in God's school, and, just before 
his graduation into the mysteries and glories 
of the heavenly world, was learning a final 
lesson at the feet of the Divine Teacher to 
better fit him for the joys of heaven. 

There must be some of us who need to learn 



THE EXPECTANT CHBIST. 25 



this lesson. Life is so full of sorrow and 
trouble, and there are so many burdens that 
make the heart weary and ready to faint, that 
I doubt not some of you need this message 
from Grod's "Word to rouse your faithful ex- 
pectancy from the things that try you and 
trouble you to the God who is your sure ref- 
uge and defence. AVhen some unusual trouble 
comes to us, which seems hard to bear, and, 
it may be, has, so far as we can see, no rela- 
tion to any wrong in us, it is hard to repress 
a sense of injustice and very natural for us to 
cry out in our smarting impatience, ^'What 
have I done that I should have to bear this 
cruel cross!" In such an hour we need to 
catch sight of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who 
pressed forward with joy toward the crown 
of thorns and the cross on Calvarj^, because 
his expectant soul saw the profound good that 
was to come to humanity and was satisfied. 
When we catch his spirit we will know that 
trouble does not necessarily mean that we 
have sinned, and most certainly not that God 
is angry with us, or is punishing us ; but that 
in his infinite love he is seeking through dis- 
cipline and cultivation to develop in us the 
noblest and grandest manhood or womanhood 
of which we are capable. Let us have our eye 



26 



THE EXPECTANT CHRIST 



on the splendid results that are to be attained 
through this divine teaching and discipline. 

How insignificant will these burdens seem 
when the days of burden-bearing are over 
and we stand to be crowned before our Lord ! 
I was greatly impressed in reading a single 
sentence by Mr. Landor, the explorer, who 
was captured while trying to make an en- 
trance into the sacred city of Thibet. He was 
treated with the most awful cruelty, and un- 
derwent as brutal torture as any man, per- 
haps, ever experienced who survived to tell 
the story. Finally he escaped to his friends, 
his wounds were ministered to, and he had 
opportunity for food and nursing. His nor- 
mal high spirits, that were beginning to fade 
away, came back as by magic. His sentence 
which inspired and thrilled me was this : " It 
is strange how one moment of happiness 
makes you forget months of hardships and 
sufferings.'' Mr. Landor is wrong. It is mar- 
velous, but not strange. Grod has set the 
world to that key. J oy shall forever conquer 
pain. Let us lift our souls into this expectant 
spirit. Let us rest our hearts on Grod's prom- 
ises and live in that spirit day by day. We 
are the children of God, and are marching 
onward to eternal victory. One day in heaven 



THE EXPECTANT CHEIST, 27 



Tdll make us forget all the sorrowing experi- 
ences of fourscore years of earthly life. The 
times of burden-bearing and hardship will, as 
we look back on them, catch a glow of beauty 
from the lessons we have learned, and the 
graces which have been developed in the 
school of the Spirit and by the hard side of 
life will never be remembered except with 
thanksgiving for the wisdom and tenderness 
with which Grod has led us. 



THE LOST CHEIST. 



Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem ; and Joseph and 
his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to 
have been in the company, went a day's journey; and 
they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. 
And when they found him not, they turned back again 
to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that 
after three days they found him in the temple." — Luke 
ii. 43-46. 

Mary and Joseph set a bad example. Peo- 
ple have been losing Christ in the city ever 
since their day. J oseph and Mary lived in a 
country town and not many people came to 
the quaint little carpenter shop in Nazareth. 
The city was so full of interest, and there were 
so many things to see, that they forgot to take 
special care to know that Christ was with the 
company when they left. A great many peo- 
ple bring Christ to the city with them, but 
allow the new sights and interests which 
crowd upon them in the city streets to draw 

28 



THE LOST CHBIST 



29 



their thoughts away from hhn. The jostling, 
noisy crowd awes them, and they get timid 
and afraid that somebody will notice theii^ 
great love for Christ, and they go feasting 
their eyes on all the worldly things that are 
new to them until they have lost Jesus out of 
their hearts and lives. 

The conductor and other railroad officials 
at Oakland, California, were puzzled one day 
over a mysterious passenger who arrived 
there on the Central Overland train. A young 
woman was found sitting among her bag- 
gage in one of the cars when the train arrived, 
and appeared disposed to remain. Being 
informed that she was at the end of the 
route, she looked up in a be^vildered way and 
tried to speak, but could not. After a time 
she recovered her voice, but was unable to 
give any account of herself. She could not 
remember where she came from, nor whither 
she was going, nor even her own name. She 
made a brave mental struggle to answer the 
questions put to her, but gave it up in despair. 
She had apparently full possession of all her 
faculties except that of memory, and that was 
a complete blank. She was finally sent to a 
hospital to see if the doctors could give her 
any help, while the police sought for her 



30 



THE LOST C HEIST. 



friends. It was a pitiable condition, doubt- 
less the result of some form of disease of the 
brain. So utter a lapse of memory is uncom- 
mon, but many people who have been brought 
up in Christian homes, and have been taught 
to read the Bible and pray and trust Christ 
from childhood, come to the city from the 
farm, or the village, and in worldly society, or 
places of sinful amusement, seem to forget all 
about the Christ whose gracious presence 
made beautiful and sweet their childhood and 
youth. 

In the case of Joseph and Mary starting 
home without Jesus we have a very striking 
illustration of the fact that siipioositions are 
very poor things in which to trn.st. They sup- 
posed he was with their company. They did 
not take the trouble to make sure, but took it 
for granted that he was along. After they 
had made a whole day's journey from Jerusa- 
lem theii* hearts began to get lonely for the 
lad and they looked about to find him. Sup- 
positions will not feed an aching heart. Home- 
sickness and loneliness must cast eyes on the 
object that is beloved. When they began to 
search among the company of friends and 
kinsfolk, it soon became apparent that their 
easy-going suppositions had no base- work of 



THE LOST C HEIST 



31 



fact, and that all day long they had been 
going away from Jesus. They are a type of 
many others in this respect. People go along 
supposing it is all right, but get careless and 
worldly and do not search their hearts daily 
to find out whether Jesus is with them or not. 
Sometimes when I ask a man if he is a Chris- 
tian, he answers, ''Oh, I suppose so.'' But 
one must always doubt the background of 
such an answer. The Christian religion is 
one to be tested by experience. In its very 
essence it is a personal friendship and com- 
munion with Christ. I know whether I have 
seen my friend to-day or not. If a man should 
ask me whether I am living in close touch 
and fellowship with some personal friend, I 
would not be likely to say, ''I suppose so." 
I would know about it. Let us ask ourselves 
some heart-searching questions concerning 
our relation to Christ. When did you meet 
Jesus last? When did you have deep and 
tender conversation and communion with him 
in your heart of hearts ? Or is it true that in 
the multitude of other things you have for- 
gotten about him, and have been going days 
and weeks without calling yourself to account 
and questioning whether Christ is reaUy in 
your company or not ? 



32 



THE LOST CHEIST, 



If Joseph and Mary set a bad example in 
losing Christ, they certainly set a good exam- 
ple in this: that they refused to go farther 
away from the place where they lost him, but 
started back at once for Jerusalem, deter- 
mined to seek for him there until they found 
him. They made a blunder, however, when 
they got to the city. For three days they 
went searching about the streets from one 
place to another before they thought of going 
to the temple. They might have found him 
the very first day instead of the third if they 
had gone straight to the temple. I suspect they 
scarcely thought to find him when they went 
there. Possibly they were so worn out and 
disheartened that they went to the temple 
with broken hearts, to pray to Grod for com- 
fort, and to ask for divine wisdom in their 
search. One thing is sure: whatever drove 
them there drove them to J esus. 

The temple — the church — is still the best 
place to find Jesus. Some of you have been 
restless and uneasy because of your sins, and 
you have been trying to find happiness and 
peace. You have gone everywhere else search- 
ing for rest, but the place to find it is here, 
at the mercy seat. Wherever you find Jesus, 
there you will find peace and rest. Christ is 



THE LOST CHBIST 



33 



always keeping tryst in the church where his 
name is loved and honored, and at the altar 
where men seek him with penitence and faith. 
No matter how blindly you seek him here, if 
you are only honestly feeling after him you 
shall find him. 

Horace Bushnell, the great New England 
preacher, found Christ in a strange way. He 
was a professor in Yale College, and lived a 
very correct moral life, but knew nothing of 
Christ or the joys of salvation. A great revi- 
val began in New Haven, and swept through 
the college. Scores of young men were being 
converted. A large company of young men 
who were Bushnell's pupils, and who greatly 
admired him, stood out against the revival in- 
fluence, following his example. He became 
convinced that he was doing wrong in influ- 
encing these young men against Christ. One 
day he said to a fellow-professor: ''I must 
get out of this woe. Here I am, and these 
young men hanging to me in their indiffer- 
ence, amidst this universal earnestness." He 
had long been troubled by doubts, and was 
not sure whether he believed in Christ, or 
even in a Grod. Finally he inquired of him- 
self : Is there, then, no truth I do believe ? 
Yes, there is one. I never doubted a distinc- 



34 



THE LOST CHEIST 



tion between right and wrong. Have I, then, 
ever taken the principle of right for my law I 
No. Here, then, I will begin. If there is a 
God, he is a right God. If I have lost him in 
wrong, perhaps I will find him in right. I 
will do the truth I know." He dropped on 
his knees and began to pray, and as he prayed 
light burst in through his darkness, and the 
Christ appeared to him, as never before, " the 
One altogether lovely." That very night he sent 
word to his students, and when they came he 
told them of the great sunrise that had come to 
his heart. They fell upon their knees around 
him, sobbing and weeping, and were nearly all 
converted. Some of the students afterwards 
declared that so marvelous was his spiritual 
power that first night of his new life that 
when he left the room at the close of that 
memorable service he seemed to be followed 
by a blaze of glory. 

The Christ that revealed himself to Bush- 
nell when he thus searched after him, though 
blindly, will also reveal himself to you if you 
will only seek for him. 

It is said that the most simple and kind- 
hearted monarch in the world to-day is King 
Oscar of Sweden. He is a tall and fine-look- 
ing man, and is adored by the Swedes, who 



THE LOST CHBIST 



35 



frequently find themselves brought into closer 
and more familiar relations with him than is 
generally the case between subjects and their 
sovereign. The king has a day every week 
when he is at home to any of his people who 
care to come to see him. The only formality 
consists in the visitor sending up his card, 
whereupon he is immediately ushered into the 
royal presence, and received with a simplicity 
and friendliness which entirely do away with 
nervousness. 

Our King, Christ, is at home to the hum- 
blest and poorest not only one day in the 
week, but all the days. His ear is ever open 
to hear our plea, his hand and smile are ever 
ready to bless and comfort us. The only bar- 
rier between our hearts and Christ is the sin 
which keeps us from coming to him. There is 
no sin which his love is not great enough to 
pardon and forgive if we will come to him in 
humility and trust. How foolish we would 
consider any subject of the King of Sweden 
who required royal help to relieve him from 
some oppressive burden, who yet went on car- 
rying his load in sorrow rather than avail 
himself of the opportunity which that gracious 
king has provided ! Yet that is what some of 
you have been doing for a long time. You 



36 



THE LOST CHEIST 



have been carrying a heavy burden of sin and 
sorrow, without necessity, for not a day has 
passed but Christ has been wilhng to Uft the 
weight from your weary shoulders and dispel 
the sorrow from your heart. I beg of you 
who have lost the way to the mercy seat, 
that you will find it again now! Come to 
Christ's altar, confessing your sins, and Christ 
will meet you there in gracious forgiveness. 

There was once a remarkable picture in the 
old Spanish cathedral in Seville. A thief who 
feared neither God nor man, hoping to obtain 
a large ransom for its recovery, cut this pic- 
ture out of its frame and carried it away. 
This bold and sacrilegious robbery served to 
spread the fame of the picture to the ends of 
the earth. It represented Saint Anthony of 
Padua, kneeling in the cell of his convent, 
waiting and praying, with arms outstretched, 
that Mary, the mother of Jesus, would let him 
clasp to his breast the little Christ-child. The 
old monk is kneeling in the shadows on the 
stone floor of his cell. The brown hood and 
gray garb of the Capuchin friar have fallen 
back from his eager, supplicating face. The 
girdle of knotted cord hangs loosely at his 
side. Out of the shadow deepening slowly 
into the darkness of the cell his face shines 



THE LOST CHBIST 



37 



with an anguish of pleading love. He looks 
as if all his life had been sore and hard ; as if 
he had wearied and was ready to faint by the 
way ; as if his only hope of strength to rise np 
and go on the hard path of life was in the joy 
and strength that might come to him from 
the smile and tonch of the Christ-child. And, 
as he gazes, he sees the clouds part, and down 
through the radiance the virgin mother comes 
with the child extended in her arms, as if she 
would lay the little golden head, crowned 
with its aureola of light, upon the old monk's 
breast. 

If I speak to any heart that is weary and 
sad with the struggle of life, longing for some 
new hope and inspiration that will give new 
impulse and meaning to your human living, I 
have the promises of God's Word to assure 
you that as in the old legend Grod gave Jesus 
to the waiting arms of the weary monk of 
Padua, he will give him to your heart if you 
make for him a place, and to whomsoever 
Christ comes there will come renewal of hope. 
Where Jesus is there is new life, new vigor, 
and the heart is renewed again with the glory 
of springtime. There is something glorious 
in that statement of Jesus to the disciples, 
that we must come to him like little children. 



38 



THE LOST CHBIST. 



Thank God, a man scarred by sin and broken 
down by troubles may, througli the mercy 
and tenderness of God's grace, come back 
again to the gentleness and hopefulness of 
childhood. Come to the mercy seat, and find 
again your lost childhood and your lost hope 
in finding the lost Christ ! 



THE BORROWma CHRIST. 



" The Lord hath need of him." — itfar^ sd. 3. 

The ministry of Jesns Christ "was drawing 
to a close. The Passover day arrived, and the 
Master sent his disciples into the city to 
secure a colt upon which he was to ride into 
Jerusalem. He told them to go to a certain 
place and there they would find tied a young 
colt on whose back no man had ever ridden. 
They were to untie this colt and bring it to 
him. If any one sought to interfere with 
them, or inquired into their reason, they were 
to simply say that he had need of it. In all 
probability the colt belonged to some acquain- 
tance or friend of Christ on whose kindness 
and generosity he felt sure he could rely in a 
time like this. They went as directed, and, on 
teUing the owner who it was that desired the 
animal, were permitted to bring it to Christ. 
We can well imagine that any friend of Jesus 

39 



40 THE BOEBOWING CHBIST. 



would have been very happy indeed to ac- 
commodate him with so shght a loan of his 
property. This incident may suggest a far 
more important loan which Christ asks of 
every one of us. The Lord hath need of us, 
and of the treasures which we are able to put 
at his disposal. We are usually accustomed 
to look at it on the other side. Our own 
needs are so great that prayer very often takes 
the form simply of petition and appeal in 
behalf of our own necessities. There is, how- 
ever, something very inspiring and comforting 
in the thought that he also has need of us. 

The strong needs the weak as often as the 
weak needs the strong. The little helpless 
babe has need of the mother's brooding ten- 
derness and the father's strong arm of protec- 
tion, but the father and mother also have 
need of the love and nestling trust of the little 
child. Christ needs our love and devotion. 
By every art of a great soul's tenderness he 
has sought to draw us into secret prayer and 
communion which are seasons of love-talk 
with Christ. It is in such seasons of inner 
fellowship that we gain those resources of 
spiritual character and strength that make it 
possible for us to help forward the work of 
om^ Lord in public. As a tree has a large 



THE BOBBOWING CHBIST. 



41 



part of its life in the roots Tindergronnd out 
of sight, so every public deed of importance 
has its background of invisible preparation. 
Just now there is a good deal of speculation 
in the newspapers about the naval battles of 
the future, which they claim will be fought 
under the water, out of sight. If that should 
prove true it would only be in harmony with 
what is true now of the greatest battles in 
every one of our lives. For, after all, the 
greatest struggles that any one of us know 
are the invisible, un journalized battles that 
are fought out in our hearts. 

When you see a man or woman doing saintly 
deeds of self-sacrificing devotion in the name 
of Jesus, you may be sure that in secret places 
they have given themselves to his divine 
hand. Did you ever hear the chime of bells 
ringing out some old hymn-tune from the 
tower of a great cathedral and wonder how it 
was played ? If you would see the musician 
you must go into a little chime-room on the 
ground floor, hidden away from public view, 
and there, at a key-board looking very much 
like that of an old-fashioned melodeon, you 
will see possibly a young girl, playing away as 
quietly as though she were jjlaying the tune 
for the hymn at evening prayers. But the 



42 



THE BOnnOWING CHEIST. 



electric current connected with her keys 
touches the great bells in the cathedral tower 
and sets them in motion and harmonious 
ringing. No force is exerted more than the 
organist uses in playing, but the bells peal 
out a cheerful invitation to the passers-by. 
The busy throng half pause, look up and re- 
member that a service is about to begin; a 
few turn their steps toward the church and 
silently pass in and find others here and there 
through the great auditorium, called out from 
the rush of the street — souls that long for 
qu.iet and for worship called together by the 
music of the great bells overhead that was all 
awakened by the touch of a girl's fingers on 
the key-board in the chime-room. Every 
human heart that surrenders itself to Jesus 
Christ becomes a chime-room where invisible 
keys are touched by the great Musician who 
awakens a melody of life that is full of the 
sweetness of heaven. 

The Lord has need of our testimony — the 
testimony of our cheerful faces and our happy 
hearts. Not long ago a man of my acquain- 
tance gave his heart to Christ, and has since 
lived a very happy Christian, who for a long 
time prior to his conversion had been so eaten 
up by care and anxiety that he had been a 



THE BOEBOWING CHRIST, 



43 



dyspeptic. His religion had the happy effect 
of healing not only his mind and heart, bnt 
his body. When he became happy in the 
consciousness of the forgiveness of his sins, 
and rejoiced in peace with Grod, his mind was 
at rest. He quit worrying. He did not fret. 
He slept well. He had a good appetite and 
digested his food without difficulty. He had 
a friend who was an infidel, who did not be- 
lieve in the Bible, or in Christ, and who was 
also a dyspeptic. They had been accustomed 
to meet and lunch together in a restaurant. 
When the skeptic saw that his friend's dys- 
pepsia was gone he was anxious to know what 
had cured him. And when he was told, with 
a happy, sincere face behind it, that it was the 
joyous heart that had come to him through 
Jesus Christ, you may be sure that it aroused 
that man's attention as a thousand sermons 
from the pulpit never could have done, and 
the skeptic has promised to go with his Chris- 
tian friend to church, and give himself a fair 
chance to meet with the same cure. There is 
no such evidence of Christianity as the testi- 
mony of a transformed life made happy by 
the Saviour's presence. 

Many years ago a distinguished physician 
of Philadelphia left his house one morning 



44 



THE BOBEOWING CHRIST. 



and was hurrying down the street when he 
noticed a peculiar and ferocious-looking man 
whose gaze was fastened upon him. Being 
one of the most kind and polite of men, he 
smiled benignly, raised his hat, and passed on, 
when suddenly he heard a shot. Turning, he 
found that the stranger had just left his home 
with the insane intention of killing the first 
man he met. He was the first man ; but his 
kind face and gentle smile had thrown the 
man off his guard, and the next passer-by had 
caught the bullet intended for him. That 
smile and bow saved his life. 

In the early days of the colonies in Amer- 
ica, a gentleman upon the frontier was hunt- 
ing with his friends, when he became separated 
from them and completely lost his way. 
Every effort to retrieve his steps led him still 
farther into the wilderness, and night over- 
took him in a dense forest. Overcome with 
fatigue, he lay down under a tree and slept 
heavily. In the morning he awoke with a 
start, oppressed with that indescribable feel- 
ing that some one was looking at him, and, 
glancing up, saw that he was surrounded by 
hostile Indians, and that the chief of the 
band, in war-paint and feathers, was bend- 
ing over him with bitter hate depicted in his 



THE BOBBOWING CHBIST, 



45 



features. He took in the situation at a glance 
— knew his immediate danger, and had no 
means of averting it; neither did he under- 
stand a word of their language. But he was 
self-possessed, knew the universal language 
of nature, and believed that even under war- 
paint and feathers '^a man's a man for a' 
that." He fixed his clear eye upon the Indian, 
and — smiled ! Grradually the fierceness passed 
away from the eye above him, and at last an 
answering smile came over the face. Both 
were men — both were brothers — and he was 
saved ! The savage took him under his pro- 
tection, brought him to his wigwam, and after 
a few days restored him to his friends. His 
kindly smile had saved his life. No man can 
tell the power — or, rather, exaggerate the 
power — of Christian good cheer — the power 
of a human life that is completely surrendered 
to Christ to reveal to men and women who are 
in sorrow and discouragement and sin the 
cheerfulness, the hopefulness, the infinite love 
of Jesus Christ. In no way can we bless the 
world so much as to lend ourselves to Jesus 
for that purpose. 

The Lord needs us to encourage and inspire 
others with the hope of salvation. There was 
sold the other day in London at a public 



46 THE BOBBOWING CHBIST, 



auction the famous trumpet upon which Trum- 
pet-Major Joy, of the Seventeenth Lancers, 
sounded the order for the charge of the Light 
Brigade at Balaklava. That httle piece of 
metal brought four thousand dollars because 
of the famous charge which it once sounded. 
But I would rather a thousand times use my 
voice, whether in public or in private conver- 
sation, to inspire some sin-discouraged soul to 
begin its march toward heaven with faith in 
Christ's love, than to blow the trumpet for a 
thousand charges like that of the Light Brigade, 
which sent them to death and disaster. For 
when we use our voices as a trumpet for Jesus 
Christ we never send men to death, but to life. 
No other work will ever give you so much joy 
and gladness as that. I knew a woman, a 
faithful Christian, but one who was timid 
about speaking to others concerning salva- 
tion, who in the midst of a revival became 
interested in a man who was deeply under 
conviction of sin. Others pleaded with him, 
but he stubbornly held out against the Spirit's 
moving, and theu^ pleading. Finally she sum- 
moned up courage to whisper to him her timid 
word of invitation, which seemed to be just 
the trumpet-call he needed, and he surren- 
dered himself to Christ. Afterwards when 



THE BOBROWIXG CHUIST. 



47 



that man would rise to speak in the meeting 
with a boldness of which she herself had 
never dreamed, her face would light up with 
joy, and his testimony was the sweetest mu- 
sic to her ear, because he was her convert. 
Christ had used her words for his salvation. 

Let us remember that Christ needs us for 
the salvation of those about us, to whom it is 
possible for us to introduce him. 

But if Christ needs us, how much more ap- 
parent it is that we need him. Useless we are 
without him. AVe get our value when we come 
to him and yield ourselves to his hands. The 
gold lying in the dirt and rock of the moim- 
tains is as useless as any base metal ; but the 
gold in the miner's hands, the gold in the mint 
under the stroke of the die that stamps upon 
it the nation's honor — how much dignity has 
come to it now! Christ comes offering to 
take you out of the mire and the clay, out of 
the dirt and rock of sin ; to cleanse and purify 
you from all the filth of evil ways; to put 
upon you the badge of the cross, the insignia 
of his own love ; to put his own good name 
in your hands and send you forth to represent 
him in bearing blessings to mankind. 



THE BLESSED KING. 



Hosanna ; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of 
the Lord."— Marh xi. 9. 

The Christian religion is a religion of enthu- 
siasm. It is not mere cold logic of righteous- 
ness and justice — it is righteousness glorified; 
it is justice aglow with mercy. To be a 
Christian is to be like Christ, and Christ is 
humanity in earnest for goodness. There was 
enthusiasm over the birth of Jesus. The an- 
gels who came to sing the anthem about Jesus 
to the shepherds were happy angels, filled to 
overflowing with enthusiastic delight. They 
could not contain their joy, but shouted aloud 
their " Glory to God in the highest ! " John 
the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, was a man 
of great enthusiasm whose magnetic earnest- 
ness was so contagious that it drew multitudes 
out from the city into the wilderness to hear 
his flaming words. Christ himself throughout 

48 



THE BLESSED KING, 



49 



all his ministry gave to every one who came in 
contact with him the impression that he was 
an earnest, enthusiastic soul. He had the 
quality, also, of arousing enthusiasm in others, 
and on the day when he came into Jerusalem 
to eat the Passover feast with his disciples his 
friends gave vent to their loyalty and devotion 
in shouts of praise, crying out their " Hosan- 
nas ! " and casting their garments and palm- 
branches in the way over which he was to 
travel. Some people who were looking on, 
who were great sticklers for the proprieties, 
asked Jesus to forbid the people this extrav- 
agant expression of their gladness, but the 
Master refused to interfere with them. He de- 
clared that it was natural and proper. That, 
indeed, if they were to hold their peace the 
very stones along the wayside would cry out 
their praises unto his name. 

I am very sure that many circles of modern 
Christianity need to rejearn this great truth 
that enthusiasm in Christian service and 
praise is the normal and not the extraordi- 
nary thing. Christianity is robbed of its 
power to bless and comfort and save in many 
churches, because it is shorn of the fervor 
and pathos which rightfully belong to it. A 
man is ever at his best in hours of enthusiasm 



50 



THE BLESSED KING, 



and devotion. If we were to choose a time 
when we would like to have our personality 
remembered by those who are dear to us, and 
whose good opinion we most fondly crave, it 
would be the time when we are mentally and 
morally aroused to some high and holy pas- 
sion for a noble cause. Charles Dickens, in 
" David Copperfield," pictures the parting that 
took place between the two young men, 
Steerforth and Copperfield. Young Steerf orth, 
placing both his hands upon Copperfleld's 
shoulders, says : " Let us make this bargain ! 
If circumstances should separate us, and you 
should see me no more, remember me at my 
best." The great novelist was true to human 
nature when he put that sentence on the lips 
of Steerforth. We all have a desire to be re- 
membered at our best, and we are never at 
our best except when we are enthusiastic. 

Our Christianity is a religion not only of 
truth and righteousness, but it is full of sing- 
ing and praise. David's expression of salva- 
tion from sin was : "He hath put a new song 
in my mouth, even praise unto our Grod." The 
great oratorios and the famous choruses have 
all been inspired by the enthusiasm of the 
Christian faith. The Christian soul bubbles 
over in music and shoutings of thanksgiv- 



THE BLESSED KING. 



51 



ings. The poet gives a true insight into the 
spirit of Christianity incarnate in a human 
life in the verse: 

My life flows on in endless song 

Above earth's lamentation ) 
I catch, the sweet though far-off hymn 

That hails a new creation ] 
The peace of Christ makes fresh my hearty 

A fountain ever springing ; 
AU things are mine since I am his, 

How can I keep from singing 1 " 

Christ has this power of arousing the hu- 
man soul to its loftiest courage and noblest 
devotion. Every strong personality has power 
to exalt or depress those who are weaker. In- 
deed, we should each be astonished if we knew 
the influence which we exert either in dis- 
heartening and discouraging those whom we 
meet in the most casual way, or in arousing 
in them the spirit of hopefulness and good 
cheer. Some people have the power to evoke 
that which is best and strongest in every one 
with whom they come in contact ; others 
again arouse that which is worst. 

A teacher once asked her little scholars if 
they wished to take part in a Fourth of July 
celebration by marching in the procession. 
She spoke happily of the music, the banners, 



52 



THE BLESSED KING. 



the crowd "who "VYOuld be looking on, and then 
inquired, "How many will march?" Every 
hand went up. Then she changed her man- 
ner and spoke in doleful tones of the long 
dusty road, the heat, the loss of their dinner, 
ending with the inquiry, " How many of you 
really think you would like to march ? " Only 
three or four hands went up, and they were 
very timid and doubtful. Again with an ani- 
mated voice she spoke of the bright side of 
the occasion and of the beauty of keeping in 
remembrance deeds of heroism, ending, " How 
many will go ? " Every hand went up with a 
will. The teacher was playing upon a mu- 
sical instrument more susceptible than any 
organ or piano. So it is that we are always 
either cursing or blessing one another. Christ 
is the matchless leader of humanity because 
he has the power to arouse every noble quality 
into its best life. 

Christ has the power 4o cause common duties 
to appear glorious with the glow of romantic 
and heroic motives. Groethe tells the story of 
a rude fisherman's hut which was transformed 
to silver by the placing in it of a little silver 
lamp. It was a homely old place, built of 
logs, but in his fairy story its rude floors, its 
heavy doors, its unsightly roof and ugly fur- 



THE BLESSED KING, 



53 



niture were all transformed to shining silver 
by that magic lamp. "What was only a crea- 
tion of Goethe's imagination is more than 
realized in actual fact when a hnman heart 
opens the door to the incoming of Christ. Not 
only is the entire character transformed, so 
that the evil things that were once loved are 
now loathed and hated, while the good things 
that were once indifferent or imdesirable are 
now admired and loved, but the whole life is 
transformed when one comes into fellowship 
with Jesus Christ. Duties that have seemed 
unlovely and repulsive when looked at from a 
distance by a heart unchanged by Christian 
love, are transfigured with glory when they 
are performed for Christ's sake. Christian 
love is a magic lamp which changes all these 
hard restraints and burdens into the silver of 
loving service. The Christian comes to know 
that even drudgery is blessed if it strengthens 
his soul in patience and enlarges his nature in 
brotherly sympathy. Hardships and trying 
experiences lose all their bitterness when he 
can look at them as Paul looked at his scars, 
and count them ^Hhe marks of the Lord 
J esus." 

It is but a step from laughter to tears, from 
the shouts of Christian joy to the passionate 



54 



THE BLESSED KING. 



tenderness that weeps over the sinful, and we 
see both in this picture of Christ. One mo- 
ment the glad shout of " Hosanna ! is ringing 
in his ears, and the smile of loving apprecia- 
tion is on his face; the next moment his 
glance has taken in the wicked city that had 
rejected him and was to crucify him, and in 
an agony of grief the tears pour like rain down 
his cheeks as he cries out, " How oft would I 
have gathered your children together, as a 
hen gathereth her brood under her wings, but 
ye would not ! " 

Surely there is nothing more blessed about 
Jesus Christ than his infinite compassion 
toward those whose sins and hardness of 
heart are bringing them into sorrow and de- 
spair. A Jewish surgeon was working among 
the wounded soldiers in the hospital just after 
the battle of Gettysburg. He was about to 
operate on a young man who declined to in- 
hale chloroform to deaden the pain. When 
the doctor urged it, fearing he would not live 
through the operation, the young soldier said : 
"I have a Saviour whom I love and trust. 
He will support me." 

For such a faith the Jewish doctor could 
feel no sympathy. To him it was supersti- 
tion, and homage to Christ was only a foolish 



THE BLESSED KING. 



55 



idolatry. He suggested to his patient that he 
might at least take a little brandy. 

The wounded man looked up with mingled 
pleading and resolve in his eyes. " My father 
died a drunkard," he said, ^'and my mother 
has prayed ever since that I might be kept 
from indulging in strong drinks. I am nine- 
teen years old, and I do not know the taste of 
liquor. I suppose I must die soon, and be in 
the presence of Christ. "Would you have me 
leave the world for his presence intoxicated ? " 

The surgeon was silenced. As he said years 
afterwards, ''I hated Jesus, but I respected 
the boy." He did what he had never done be- 
fore — sent for the chaplain of the regiment, 
who knew the young soldier and could talk 
with him. He saw the brave boy give the 
chaplain his Bible, and heard his last message 
to his mother. 

" I am ready now, doctor." 

During the operation the young hero lay 
whispering prayers and murmuring the name 
of his Master. 

Five days passed, and there was some hope 
of life. Then a change came. The surgeon 
was suddenly sent for. 

" Doctor, it-'s nearly over. I want you to 
stay and see me die. You do not love my 



56 



THE BLESSED KING, 



Saviour; bnt I have been praying that he 
would teach yon to love him." 

Bnt the doctor wonld not remain. He 
conld not bear to see the Christian boy die 
rejoicing in the love of One whom he had 
been taught to hate. 

The heroic youth soon breathed his last, 
and the surgeon tried to forget him. But the 
young soldier's dying words followed and dis- 
tressed him for years, till one evening he went 
into a Christian meeting, determined to sur- 
render his heart to Christ. 

At that meeting an elderly lady told of her 
boy, "now in heaven," who had lost a limb 
and his life at Grettysburg, and how he had 
prayed for his surgeon, who was an enemy to 
Christ. The Jew started to his feet as soon 
as she had done. " My sister," he said, " the 
blessed Lord heard your dear boy's prayer. I 
am that surgeon, and since I came into this 
meeting I have been led to love him whom I 
once hated." 

Our blessed King is as full of tenderness 
and compassion to you as he was to that Jew- 
ish surgeon, and if you will come back from 
your wandering, you will find home and wel- 
come in his heart. 

There is a quaint old custom which still 



THE BLESSED KING. 



57 



clings to the House of Commons in England 
and marks the termination of its every sitting. 
The moment the House is adjourned, stento- 
rian-voiced messengers and policemen cry out 
in the lobloies and corridors: ''Who goes 
home ? " '' Who goes home ? " For centuries, 
during the sessions of Parliament, these mys- 
terious words have sounded every night 
through the Palace of Westminster. The cus- 
tom dates from a time when it was necessary 
for members to go home in parties accom- 
panied by soldiers for common protection 
from the highwaymen who infested the streets 
of London. But though that danger has long 
since passed away, the question, Who goes 
home ? is still asked, night after night. 

I sound that old question in your ears. 
Many a danger lurks beside the way of life, 
and those who go without a guide and with- 
out protection are ever and anon beset and 
destroyed. But Christ will guide you home. 
Who goes home ? 



THE COST OF A CHEISTIAN LIFE. 

" For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth 
not down first, and count eth the cost, whether he have 
sufficient to finish it ? Lest haply, after he hath laid the 
foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it 
begin to mock him, saying. This man began to build, and 
was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make 
war against another king, sitteth not down first, and 
consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet 
him that cometh against him with twenty thousand ? Or 
else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth 
an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace. So like- 
wise, whosoever he be of you that f orsaketh not all that 
he hath, he cannot be my disciple.''^ — Luke xiv. 28-33. 

This passage with its striking illustrations 
is very pertinent and interesting at the present 
moment. At this season of the year, when on 
every hand the workmen are digging deep 
that they may lay the solid foundations for 
new buildings, and in the present emergency 
when the whole world is taking interest in the 
war-cloud which hangs over our nation, we 

58 



THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE. 59 



are able to appreciate both of these significant 
figures. The parable suggests the earnest and 
serious character of a Christian life. It is not 
a mere matter of impulse, or simply turning 
over a new leaf, the signing of a pledge or 
making of a new resolution. It is far more 
important than that. Christ compares it to 
the building of a tower, or the going to war, 
and advises that upon entering upon so im- 
portant a matter it is highly essential that a 
man shall sit down and count the cost, and 
fully make up his mind to the thoroughgoing 
conditions which are at the foundation of a 
Christian life. It is my desire to briefly, but 
frankly, count the cost with some of you who 
have not yet entered on a Christian life. 

First, it should be understood that to be- 
come a Christian costs every sin that you 
have. Sins must be not only deplored and 
repented of in the sense that you feel sorry for 
and regret them, but they must be resolutely 
thrown overboard. It is easy to see what 
Christ thinks of it when he declares in sub- 
stance that if you have a sin that is as dear 
to you as a right eye, you must pluck it out 
and cast it away ; or if it be dear as a right 
arm, you must deliberately cut it off and bury 
it out of sight forever. Christ never lowers 



60 THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE. 

the standard of discipleship. He always de- 
mands of everybody as the very first condition 
of conversion a thorough repentance of every 
known sin. 

Pezon, the great French hon-tamer, owed 
his success to the use of electricity in taming 
his beasts. When a wild lion or tiger was to 
be tamed, live wires were first rigged up in 
the cage between the tamer and the animal. 
After a time Pezon would turn his back, and 
the treacherous creature would invariably 
make a leap at him, but on encountering the 
charged wires would receive a paralyzing 
shock. This lesson rarely had to be repeated, 
as the mysterious shock was not readily for- 
gotten. There have been many efforts in the 
past to tame the human soul and give peace 
to the human heart in some such way as that, 
but they have always failed. Christ's way is 
not to frighten the appetites and lusts and 
passions of sinful human nature into an arti- 
ficial docility, but to cleanse the heart of every 
evil thing. Christ met many people in his 
ministry who were so possessed by evil spirits 
that every form of discipline and punishment 
had failed to heal them or tame them, but 
when he had bidden the evil spirits depart 
they became his obedient and loving disciples 



THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE. 61 



If you would be a Christian, decide at once to 
cut loose from every sin. Only in that way 
niay you have the blessings of forgiveness 
and the joy and gladness of the Christian 
life. 

To be a Christian will cost you, also, the 
giving up of your self -righteousness. If ever 
a man could plead his self-righteousness, it 
would have been the rich young ruler vv^ho 
came to Christ claiming that he had kept all 
ten of the commandments, according to the 
law of Moses, from his youth up, and whose 
life was so correct and beautiful in many 
ways that Jesus looking on him loved him. 
But Christ saw that he based his great hope of 
happiness upon the comforts that came to him 
from his earthly possessions, and told him that 
he must sell ail that he had and give to the poor 
and follow him. Correct as the young man 
thought he was, when it really came to the 
point of going out from his beautiful home 
and sharing the wandering fate of Jesus, he 
went away with a frown on his brow. The 
trouble was that down at the heart, under- 
neath all the pleasant exterior, he was proud 
and self-willed and would not surrender his 
will in obedience to Christ. 

There is in the North Sea an island called 



62 THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE. 

Keldive, which contains perhaps the most 
curious lake in the world. The surface of its 
waters is quite fresh, and supports fresh-wa- 
ter creatures and fresh- water vegetation ; but 
deep down it is as salt as the bluest depths of 
the sea, and sponges and salt-water fish live 
and have their being there, to the despair of 
the scientists. Nansen found much the same 
thing during his drift in the Fram across the 
polar sea. He was often able to find per- 
fectly fresh water on the surface of the sea, 
for drinking purposes, while a few feet un- 
derneath it would be the saltest brine. There 
are many people whose hearts are like that. 
They have grown up in the midst of Christian 
civilization, and have been so influenced by 
Christian standards in conversation and con- 
duct that many people taking only casual 
observation imagine that their goodness is as 
true as if they were sincere Christians. Some- 
times these people are very self-complacent 
about themselves and very proud of their own 
morality. They congratulate themselves that 
they are as good as their genuine, whole- 
hearted Christian neighbors. But it is all on 
the surface, though often unconsciously so. 
Let some sudden emergency arise, let some 
great temptation, or heart-probing trial, 



THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE, 63 

awaken the profound depths of the soul, and 
up through this sweet surface sentiment that 
has seemed so true will boil the salt brine of 
a sinful and selfish heart. Be sure that what 
the heart is in its depths it will some time be 
throughout. Christ saves by cleansing the 
whole heart fountain. Make the fountain 
pure and all the streams that flow from it 
will be clean and sweet. If the heart is pure 
throughout you may stir the waters of life to 
the very bottom in the stress of trial and 
temptation, and you will bring up nothing 
but the life-giving water. 

To become a Christian costs a public confes- 
sion of faith in Christ, and a brave and honest 
following after Christ throughout our lives. 
To be a Christian is to be a sincere and lov- 
ing friend of Christ and have a willingness to 
share his fate. "While Captain Dreyfus, the 
disgraced French army officer, is passing his 
days in maddening solitude on Devil's Island, 
his wife is making every effort to join him, 
that she may share his fate. The political 
prisoners of France who are sent into exile 
are usually accorded the privilege of having 
their wives with them if they so desire, and 
many a brave Frenchwoman has given up 
home and friends, and has sacrificed every- 



64 THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE, 

thing to be near her husband in his time of 
tribulation. Although Captain Dreyfus is be- 
ing treated with the most horrid cruelty, being 
kept in an iron cage, like a wild beast, cut off 
entirely from communication with the out- 
side world, his wife is not only willing but 
eager to share her husband's lot, and is fully 
prepared to submit to the same rigorous dis- 
cipline as that imposed upon him. How soon 
we could capture the world for Christ if every 
man and woman who professed discipleship to 
him were as thoroughly devoted and faithful 
as this heroic woman is to her husband ! Yet 
the relation of husband and wife is the very 
illustration that Christ uses to show the rela- 
tion between himself and the chm^ch. In be- 
coming a Christian we pledge to the Lord an 
open and faithful fellowship and service. The 
church is often hindered in its progress by 
the compromising entanglements which its 
members make with the world. We have no 
right to desire to be more popular and suc- 
cessful than is compatible with being perfectly 
true to Christ. If Jesus must go into exile, 
we should be ready to go with him, with brave 
hearts and shining faces. 

While a Christian life brings infinite peace, 
and the only deep and abiding peace which it 



THE COST OF A CRBISTIAN LIFE, 65 

is possible for us to have in this world, it also 
calls us to be soldiers and enter into war. We 
are to fight the devil, and are to seek to de- 
stroy his works. We can make no compro- 
mise with any sin that fights Christ or hurts 
mankind without dishonor to our Lord. 

It is this earnest, thoroughgoing, heroic life 
to which I call you when I ask you to be a 
Christian. I do not mean any mere play on 
the surface of things; I am asking you to 
summon all the forces of your will and sur- 
render all that you have and are to Jesus Christ. 
And I stand ready to prove to you that, cost- 
ing as much as it does, it is the most profitable 
investment that any man can make. All that 
you have to give up is either your sins which 
are harmful to you, or some temporary advan- 
tage which will soon pass away, while the 
blessings which will come to you as a Chris- 
tian will endure forever. 

The tenure by which we hold earthly power 
and riches is very frail. There was a strange 
auction in London the other day. The trea- 
sures to be sold were the mummies of three 
royal personages. One of these was what was 
left of the mortal form of a once proud queen 
of Babylon in the palmy days of its national 
glory; one was Philadelphus, the son of the 



66 THE COST OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE. 

greatest of the Ptolemies; and the third was a 
once powerful king of Assyria. Accompany- 
ing the mummies were letters from Dr. Birch 
of the British Museum and other famous 
scholars, which certified to these facts. They 
were all three sold for seventy-five guineas. 
Once they could make the whole proud world 
tremble at a frown or the wave of a hand; but 
now, thousands of miles from their native land, 
their poor dust, torn from the gorgeous tombs 
in which they were once laid with pomp and 
glory, has become goods for auction among 
curiosity-seekers. It is only the treasures of 
the soul that last. Death has no power to 
bring them to the dust. 

The Queen of Austria is said to be mistress 
of the finest collection of jewels in Europe. 
The jeweled arms are quite magnificent, among 
them being the lance of St. Maurice, blazing 
with precious stones. The regalia of Charle- 
magne, taken from his tomb at Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, is also in her jewel-box. She is a great 
lover of emeralds, and one of her prettiest 
ornaments is a watch composed of one dark 
emerald hanging on a chain of emeralds and 
diamonds, which was a gift from the late Shah 
of Persia. God compares those who yield their 
hearts to him to serve him loyally to crown 



THE COST OF A CHEISTIAN LIFE. 67 

jewels, and assures us that out of all the beau- 
tiful things in the universe he has chosen 
loving human hearts to be his peculiar treasure 
" when he cometh to make up his jewels." All 
that we can give up is a small price to pay for 
the immortal glory that shall come to us as 
the crown jewels of the heavenly world. 

Death loses all its shadows to the soul that 
has lost all, and gained all, for Christ's sake. 
As Frances Willard lay quietly waiting for 
her summons, on the morning of her depar- 
ture, she said suddenly : " Come, dear, sing 
my favorite hymn.'' And Miss Grordon sang, 
"Grently, Lord, oh, gently lead us." After- 
wards a friend came in, and she said, with a 
happy smile: "Dear Clara, I have crept in 
with mother." Her faithful heart had never 
ceased to yearn for this dear mother who had 
passed to the better land before her. It was 
the morning after the explosion of the battle- 
ship MainCj and the air was full of wars and 
rumors of wars ; but these did not reach that 
calm death-bed. Asking Miss Grordon to take 
her picture of Hoffman's "Christ" to Lady 
Henry Somerset, she said : " Have engraved on 
the top of it, ' Only the golden rule of Christ 
can bring the golden age of man.' Below en- 
grave, ^Neither do I condemn thee: go, and 



68 THE COST OF A CHBISTIAN LIFE, 

sin no more.'" A little later, smiling upon 
those around her, she uttered her last words : 
" How beautiful to be with God ! " Sm^ely 
Frances Willard found that the Christian life 
was worth all it cost and a thousand times 
more, and it shall be so to every one of you 
who will pay the price of a whole-hearted sur- 
render of yourself to J esus. 



THE COENER-STONE OF A 
NOBLE LIFE. 

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and for- 
eigners, but fellow -citizens with the saints, and of the 
household of God ; and are built upon the foundation of 
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
chief corner-stone." — Epli, ii. 19, 20. 

Jesus Cheist is the foundation of all that 
is noblest and best in our human lives. When 
a man becomes a Christian he comes into close 
relation with the best company, whether in 
history, or literature, or among living men, 
that the world has ever known. Paul puts 
this thought very strongly here. In becom- 
ing Christians we become fellow-citizens with 
such men as Enoch, who walked with Grod; 
as Abraham, who was the friend of God; as 
Joseph, the wise and heroic statesman, whose 
bough of humanity ran over the wall in abun- 
dant blessing to his age. We become brothers 
of such men as Moses, who chose rather to 

6& 



70 



THE COBNEB-STONE 



suffer affiiction with the people of Grod than 
to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season ; we 
join in the anthem of confidence in Grod with 
Miriam, the sweet singer of Israel; we take 
our stand with Daniel, who could in his youth 
keep sober in the midst of a drunken court, 
and as a consequence could look a lion out 
of countenance in his old age. The Christian 
has fellowship with such heroes as the three 
Hebrew princes who dared the king's furnace 
rather than worship his image. Esther, the 
heroine of her age, and Ruth, the sweet em- 
bodiment of womanly devotion and fidelity, 
become our sisters. Elijah and Elisha are 
fellow-citizens with us. David and Isaiah and 
Malachi, and Paul and Peter and John, and 
all the long line of prophets and apostles and 
singers of the faith are in the goodly company 
of our holy brotherhood. 

If we come down to our own day, it be- 
comes more apparent still that the best com- 
pany in the world is to be found among 
those who have come into fellowship with 
Jesus Christ. A heart and life built on Jesus 
as its foundation is introduced into the com- 
munion of the noblest spirits that the world 
knows. A few years ago, when Dr. Talmage 
visited Mr. Gladstone, who has but recently 



OF A NOBLE LIFE, 



71 



passed so trinmpliantly beyond, he asked him 
if the passage of the years confirmed or 
weakened his faith in Christianity. The two 
men were walking together on a hillside 
when the question was put. The greatest of 
modern Englishmen, and the greatest citizen 
of the world for a generation, halted at the 
question, and looking his visitor in the eyes 
with earnestness and solemnity replied : " Dr. 
Talmage, my only hope for the world is in 
the bringing of the human mind into contact 
with the divine revelation. Nearly all the 
men at the top in our country are believers 
in the Christian religion. The four leading 
physicians of England are devout Christian 
men. I have been forty-seven years in the 
Cabinet of my country, and during those times 
I have been associated with sixty of the chief 
intellects of the century, and I can think of 
but five of the sixty who were not professors 
of the Christian religion, and those five were 
all respecters of it. Talk about the questions 
of the day ! There is only one question, and 
that is how to apply the gospel to all circum- 
stances and conditions. It can, and will, cor- 
rect all that is wrong. I am, after a long and 
busy life, more than ever confirmed in my 
faith in Christianity." 



THE COBNEB'STONE 



There is sometMng very striking in tlie wtxj 
in which. Paul sets forth the truth that Jesus 
Christ is not only the foundation of our hope, 
and of all nobility of life, but of the prophets 
and the apostles also. He was the burden of 
their message and the center of their hope as 
he is of ours. We have here the order in 
which we come to God : we find the prophets 
in the Bible, and they bring us to Christ, and 
Christ brings us to the mercy seat — to the 
heart of our Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ 
is the foundation-stone of our love for the 
Bible. As we come to love him we love his 
words and the whole book which tells about 
him and makes clear his message to humanity. 
There was a certain literary woman who stood 
high among book critics. One day, in review- 
ing a book, she said : " Who wrote this book ? 
It is beautifully written, very nice, but there 
is something wrong here and there ! " She 
proceeded to criticise it with a good deal of 
severity. Some months afterwards this lady 
became acquainted with the author of the 
book, fell in love with him, and married him. 
She took the same book up again, and said: 
" What a beautiful book ! What a nice book ! 
There are some mistakes here and there, but 
they ought to be overlooked." The book was 



OF A NOBLE LIFE, 



73 



just the same as it had been before, but the 
critic had changed. When she began to love 
the anthor it changed her attitude toward the 
book. So it is mth us about the Bible. Peo- 
ple do not love the Bible because they do not 
love Christ. But you never yet heard of a 
man or woman who came to love Christ sin- 
cerely to whom the Bible did not become 
precious. 

Christ is the foundation motive of all that 
is noblest and sweetest in men's conduct 
toward each other. A very beautiful illustra- 
tion of this is seen in the hearty letter of com- 
mendation received from the Roman Catholic 
priest who was chaplain of the wrecked bat- 
tle-ship Maine concerning the character of 
Carlton Jencks, one of the seamen who went 
down to death in the waters of Havana har- 
bor. He was a member of the Christian En- 
deavor Society, but his love for Christ made 
him seek to help the Roman Catholic sailors 
on the ship, and hel^D the priest of that faith 
in building up what was best in their hearts 
and lives. After the explosion the priest 
wrote home to the dead sailor's friends : He 
was one of our best men, and, although not of 
my belief, was one of my greatest comforts. 
He was a zealous promoter of the evening 



74 



THE COBNEB'STONE 



services on the ship." The religion of this 
disciple of Jesus Christ made him seek to be 
a helpful Christian brother among these men 
whose faith was different from his own. He 
helped to get his messmates together when 
the chaplain was waiting to give them reli- 
gious instruction. So sincere and genuine 
was he in this that the priest says : " Our men 
admired him for his attention to religious 
duties." In every land and every clime where 
Christianity has gone it has had that kind of 
effect on the hearts of those who have really 
built upon Jesus Christ as the corner-stone of 
their living. 

After one of England's wars in Africa was 
over, Lord Napier, being about to leave Africa, 
found he had a soldier with a broken leg, and 
did not know what to do with him. He was 
too sick to take along with them, and he did 
not like to leave him among barbarians. So 
he said: "Fetch him along anyhow; better 
have him die on the way than leave him among 
these savages." They took him part of the 
way, but the poor man became so very ill they 
could not take him any farther. So Lord 
Napier went to a woman who had caught 
some little glimpse of the divine life and was 
distinguished on account of it for her kind- 



OF A NOBLE LIFE. 



75 



ness, and said to her : " We have with us a 
soldier with a broken leg, and we must leave 
him. Will you take care of him ? " and he 
offered her ten times as much money as could 
have been expected, hoping by excess of pay 
to secure for him great kindness. And what 
do you suppose she said to him ? She said : 
" No ! I will not take care of this sick soldier 
for the money you offer me. I have no need 
of the money. My father and mother have 
a comfortable tent, and I have a good tent, 
and why should I take the money ? I will 
not take care of the soldier for the money, 
but if you will leave him here I will take 
care of him for the sake of the love of 
God!" That is the supreme motive of the 
most splendid deeds that are being done on 
the earth to-day. Men are bearing heavy 
burdens with cheerful hearts, and delicate 
women are going into attics and cellars of city 
slums seeking out the sick and the poor, the 
broken-hearted and the sinful, with faces 
aglow with the light of heaven — not for 
money, for ten thousand deeds are done every 
day that no money could hire — for the sake 
of the love of Grod and of his Son Jesus Christ ! 

Jesus Christ is the corner-stone of our con- 
fidence and trust in Grod. It is only when we 



7G 



THE GOENEH-STONE 



stand upon Christ as the solid rock under our 
feet that God changes from the Monarch and 
the Ruler before whom we tremble, and comes 
to be the tender, loving Heart to whom we 
may say in trustful confidence, " Our Father 
who art in heaven." St. Luke tells us that 
when those first seventy disciples were sent 
out to preach, and had come back with the 
wonderful story of the divine blessing that 
had attended their mission, the heart of Jesus 
was filled with joy as he listened to them, and 
he cried out aloud in his thanksgiving to God: 
" I thank thee. Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth, that thou hast hid these things from the 
wise and prudent, and hast revealed them 
unto babes." Mark Guy Pearse, commenting 
on this utterance of Christ, says that while 
none of us can touch the sky, all of us can 
touch the ground, and remarks on the bless- 
edness of the fact that the highest things 
of God and the greatest good of life do not 
require men of genius and vast ability, but 
are j)ut within the reach of the lowly and the 
lowest. The life of God in the soul is like the 
light of the sun that bathes the hill-tops with 
glory, but also creeps down into the valley 
and fills the buttercup with gold up to the 
brim^ and unfolds the daintiness of the daisy. 



OF A NOBLE LIFE. 



11 



In these days when so much is made of the 
intellect it is blessed to know that the great 
mysteries of life are those which we mastered 
as little children. None of ns ever went to 
school to learn the art of eating and drinking, 
of breathing and sleeping, and yet if we had 
not learned these we could not have learned 
anything else. Mr. Pearse says he likes to 
think of some old German professor sitting 
down amid his dusty volumes in the sacred 
stillness of his study, to master the English 
language. How he is perplexed with the law- 
lessness of our pronunciation! He does not 
know how to put his tongue to his teeth to 
get off many of those difficult words. At 
last he thinks he knows enough to visit Eng- 
land, and reaches the shores of that land. 
He speaks what he thinks is English, though 
the people who hear him think it is Grerman. 
But into his presence there trips some bright- 
faced little girl of five or six years. She has 
no trouble with this language of ours. She 
knows how to put her tongue to her teeth ; 
she can prattle away without a moment's hesi- 
tation. Why ? She has not learned it with a 
grammar and a dictionary ; it is her mother 
tongue. She lay as a little one in her mother's 
arms, and looked. into her mother's face, and 



78 



THE COBNEB-STONE 



watched her mother's lips, and listened to her 
mother's voice, and learned to talk. Alas ! 
there are a great many people who are trying 
to find Grod with a grammar and a dictionary! 
But a man can never learn to say " Our Father 
who art in heaven " in that way. It is in the 
arms of the shepherd Christ, who brings us 
back again to the spirit of childhood, that we 
learn to say those blessed words of affection 
and confidence. 

Christ is the corner-stone of the only thor- 
oughly well-rounded and complete human life. 
Man was made in the image of God, and 
though he wanders far away, and is awfully 
marred and scarred by sin, we are many times 
astonished at the sudden flashes of nobler life 
in him which tell of his divine lineage. But 
all such flashes are evanescent and transient 
except when rising upon the solid foundation 
of Jesus Christ. He alone has power to trans- 
form the nature and bring a man's entire 
being into submission to the heavenly life. 
Many who build upon frail foundations may do 
occasionally beautiful deeds, but they relapse 
again into the quicksands of sin. Only Christ 
can [keep a human life ever strong and steady 
like the lighthouse flame that streams forth from 
above a foundation built into the solid rock. 



OF A NOBLE LIFE. 



79 



In a hotel parlor in Xew Orleans, recently, 
a number of ladies and gentlemen were en- 
gaged in conversation. Suddenly a very re- 
pulsive-looking man came into the parlor. He 
had a disagreeable and forbidding face and 
manner. His countenance bore the marks of 
dissipation and degradation, and his eyes were 
bleared. He was ugly both in person and 
movement, and when he took a chair the con- 
versation ceased, and there was an unpleasant 
constraint as if an evil spirit were present. 
The ugly man remained seated, with his head 
bowed down, frowning at space. Little by 
little the conversation began to revive, but 
attention never completely left the ugly man. 
Suddenly he arose from his chair. Every eye 
was glancing furtively after him as he walked 
nonchalantly to the piano and opened it. 
There was a death-like silence. "Who asked 
for music I " was the involuntary thought, but 
no one had the courage to speak to the intru- 
der. He ran his fingers carelessly over the 
keys and his ugliness disappeared. From a 
demon he was become an angel. He seemed 
to be playing to please his own fancy, wan- 
dering without effort from one theme into 
another. The listeners were charmed; tears 
came to the eyes of the ladies. The music 



80 



THE COBNEB-STONE 



was telling of life: its joys and sorrows; of 
deep woods with the sun in lace-work on the 
ground, and birds singing in the trees; of 
moonlight in the far-away, dreamy places ; of 
recollections of departed friends, and the sad- 
ness of disappointment. How could such a 
delicate, soaring spirit, moved by the mysti- 
cal expression of harmony, be lodged in that 
coarse, degraded body ? The ugly man, charm- 
ing his listeners so that they were enraptured 
with him, was like Caliban, the vicious, de- 
structive demon, who dreamed of the music 
on his island: '^The isle is full of noises, 
sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and 
hurt not." The playing ceased abruptly ; the 
player turned on his stool and gave a harsh, 
guttural laugh. He was the ugly man again. 
The angel had disappeared, and the demon 
was again in power. 

Thank Grod, Jesus Christ has the power to 
take hold upon a nature that has been made 
ugly by sin and wicked ways, and transform 
it by his divine grace into his own beauti- 
ful likeness. He can take the ugliness away, 
with all that is forbidding and repulsive. 
Many a face that has borne its inheritance of 
unattractive features has been so lighted up 
with love, and patience, and gentleness, and 



OF A NOBLE LIFE. 



81 



compassion that it has become beautiful as 
an angel's. Christ is the one being who has 
power to expel the demon from the human 
soul, and bring the angel into constant do- 
minion. If I speak to any who are conscious 
of ugliness of nature, manifested in marks of 
jealousy and envy, or hate, or greed, that 
wiinkle and distort the soul, I preach to you 
as the foundation of your hope the divine 
Christ who is able to transform your nature 
and make it beautiful. He will bring you into 
fellowship with himself. He will live with you 
day by day, and living with him you shall 
catch his spirit, and after a while, when you 
shall awake to immortality, yom' heart shall 
glow with gladness and delight, in that land 
where you shall know as you are known, to 
see that your once ugly and distorted moral 
features have been transformed into his like- 
ness, and you have come to share the beauty 
of your Lord. 



CHRIST CLEANSING THE TEMPLE OF 
THE SOUL. 

He went into the temple, and began to cast out 
them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying 
unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer : 
but ye have made it a den of thieves." — LuTce xix. 45, 46. 

The temple in Jerusalem is not alone in 
having been invaded by thieves. The temple 
of the human soul, which belongs to God, and 
in which he should ever dwell, is often made a 
rendezvous for thievish lusts and passions 
which ravage that holy sanctuary of all that 
is most noble. Sometimes we contrast two 
men — the one strong and pure, surrounded 
by an atmosphere of benevolence and mercy, 
his conversation and life giving utterance and 
expression to a mind and heart full of rever- 
ent thoughts toward Grod and sympathetic 
and helpful interest in humanity; while the 
other is drunken and degraded, surrounded 

82 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 83 



by an atmosphere of profanity and vulgarity, 
his conversation and life expressing the most 
reckless and defiant spirit tovrard Grod, and a 
selfish and vengeful attitude toward his fel- 
lows. The two men seem as far apart as 
heaven from hell; it seems scarcely possible 
that they can belong to the same order of be- 
ings. Yet they are brothers, and the one 
gTeat difference between the two is that the 
temple of the soul in the one case has retained 
its true character as a temple unto the Lord, 
while in the other case evil appetites and pas- 
sions and unholy imaginations have ravaged 
the temple and hold it as a place of revel. 
Between these two characters which stand 
out in such startling opposition are many 
others where the contrast is not so striking, 
where the class to which they belong is not 
so easy to designate. It behooves those of us 
who are Christians to interrogate our own 
hearts very frequently and see if they are in- 
deed the temples of the Holy Spirit. To be a 
genuine Christian requires that Christ shall • 
dwell in the temple of the heart, and that the 
supreme motive of the life shall be to serve 
him and please him. 

Mr. Spurgeon said that in his young minis- 
try he received a tremendous spiritual uplift 



84 



CHBIST CLEANSING 



which was felt through all his later life by a 
strange revelation which came to him in a 
dream. He was sitting in an arm-chair, wea- 
ried with his work. He had fallen asleep in a 
very self-complacent sort of mood, as his work 
at the time was unusually successful. As he 
slept he thought a stranger entered the room, 
and though his face was benign, he carried 
suspended about his person measures and 
chemical agents and implements, which gave 
him a very strange appearance. The stranger 
came toward him, and extending his hand, 
said : " How is your zeal ? " 

Mr. Spurgeon supposed when he began his 
question that the query was to be for his 
health, but was pleased to hear his final word; 
for he was quite well pleased with his zeal, and 
doubted not that the stranger would smile 
when he should know its proportions. In- 
stantly he conceived of it as physical quan- 
tity, and putting his hand into his bosom 
brought it forth and presented it to the 
stranger for inspection. He took it and 
placed it in his scales, weighing it carefully. 
Mr. Spurgeon heard him say: "One hundred 
pounds ! He could scarcely suppress an 
audible note of satisfaction; but he caught 
the visitor's earnest look as he noted down 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 



85 



the weight, and he saw at once that the man 
with the scales had drawn no final conclu- 
sions, but was intent on pushing his investi- 
gation. He broke the mass to atoms, put it 
into his crucible and put the crucible into the 
fire. When the mass was thoroughly fused 
he took it out and set it down to cool. It 
congealed in cooling and when turned out on 
the hearth exhibited a series of layers which, 
at the touch of the hammer, fell apart, and 
were severely tested and weighed, the stranger 
making notes as the process went on. When 
he had finished he presented the notes to Mr. 
Spurgeon, and gave him a look of mingled 
sorrow and compassion as, without a word 
except ^'May Grod save you!" he left the 
room. The astonished Spurgeon opened the 
notes and read as follows: "Analysis of the 
zeal of a candidate for a crown of glory — 
weight in mass, 100 pounds. Of this, on 
analysis, there proved to be : Bigotry, 10 
parts; personal ambition, 23 parts; love of 
praise, 19 parts; pride of denomination, 15 
parts ; pride of talent, 14 parts ; love of au- 
thority, 12 parts; love to God, 4 parts; love 
to man, 3 parts. Total, 100." 

Of all the hundred parts, according to this 
analysis, only seven parts, comprising love to 



86 



CHEIST CLEANSING 



God and love to man, were pure zeal. Mr. 
Spurgeon said that lie had become troubled 
at the peculiar manner of the stranger, and 
especially at his parting look and words ; but 
when he looked at the figures his heart sank 
as lead within him. He made a mental effort 
to dispute the correctness of the record. But 
he was suddenly startled into a more honest 
mood by an audible sigh — almost a groan — 
from the stranger, who had paused in the hall, 
and by a sudden darkness falling upon him, 
by which the record became at once obscured 
and nearly illegible. He fell upon his knees 
and cried out: "Lord, save me!" As he knelt 
there the paper with its terrible analysis be- 
came a mirror, and he saw his heart reflected 
in it. The record was true ! He saw it ; he 
felt it; he confessed it; he deplored it, and 
besought God to save him from himself with 
many tears, until at length, with a loud and 
irrepressible cry of anguish, he awoke. He 
had prayed in years gone by to be saved from 
hell, but his vow to be saved from himself was 
h now immeasurably more fervent and distress- 
ful ; nor did he rest or pause till the refining 
fire came down and went through his heart, 
searching, probing, melting, burning, filling 
all its chambers with light, and hallowing 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 87 

his "whole heart to Grod. He declared ever 
afterwards that that day was the crisis in his 
history. 

Let ns search onr hearts and see if there be 
any false motives or wicked way in ns. Let 
us pray God to reveal the inmost recesses of 
the heart's temple to onr gaze that we may be 
sure that our whole souls are surrendered to 
him. It is better to be weighed in the balance 
and be found wanting now, while yet trans- 
forming grace and cleansing power may be 
found at the mercy seat, than to be weighed 
in the balances of the judgment-day and be 
found wanting then when it is too late to 
change. There are no heart thieves so power- 
ful that Christ cannot drive them out and 
transform the temple into a fit dwelling-place 
for the Divine Presence. 

There is a spot in southern Idaho, a few 
miles below the Great Shoshone Falls, which 
until recently was called the " Devil's Corral." 
For thousands of years this Devil's Corral" 
had lain a silent, ghostly, hollow, and un- 
fruitful desert, surrounded by giant lava walls 
towering above almost perpendicularly from 
five to eight hundred feet. These lava walls, 
burnt, rent, torn and twisted into confusing 
shapelessness, shut in an apparently irrecov- 



88 OHBIST CLEANSING 



erable desolation. Even the Indian passed 
around it when fishing along Snake River; 
and the more daring white man looked at it, 
gave it its ngly name, and made money out 
of other white men by bringing them to see 
it. One day a young man of ideas went down 
into the strange place, and saw that it might 
be reclaimed. He saw how the rock wall 
might be turned to good account, and he said : 
" The north wind can never find its way down 
here. This place ought to be transformed 
into a garden or a fruit-farm.'' He discovered 
in the highest part two small cold-water lakes 
which were connected. From these the entire 
basin might be irrigated. He also discovered 
several hundred acres of very choice soil. 
Against the undertaking was the tremendous 
work necessary to clear and level and irrigate 
the land. He homesteaded a part of the land, 
made a desert entry on the balance, and began. 
He blazed out a trail along the rocky descent, 
down which pack-mules could travel. Wagons, 
harrows, plows, and all sorts of things that 
pack-animals could not carry, were lowered 
with ropes over a perpendicular lava wall of 
six hundred feet. After a while he engineered 
a road, which he blasted out with dynamite 
from the rock walls. Now, a four-horse team 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 89 

can be taken down into what once was the 
Devil's Corral," and it has been transformed 
into four hundred acres of paradise, blooming 
into life with five thousand fruit-trees. The 
luscious fruit is a continual joy and fortune 
to its owner, and a source of pleasure to visit- 
ing thousands. That is an illustration of the 
transformation which Jesus Christ can bring 
to a human heart and life. He can take a 
poor sin-possessed heart that has been only a 
devil's corral, yielding nothing that is good, 
and transform it into a blossoming paradise 
where all the sweet graces of the Spirit yield 
their fragrance and their fruit. 

The serious questions pertinent for every 
one to ask at this moment are : What is the 
condition of the temple of my own heart? 
What would Jesus do if he were to visit it? 
Are the thoughts and meditations and pur- 
poses which live in my heart pleasing to 
Christ ? If these questions can truthfully be 
answered only in the negative then there can 
be no question about your duty at this time. 
On your knees before the mercy seat you 
should implore him who drove out the swin- 
dling money-changers from the old temple in 
Jerusalem to visit your heart and drive out 
every unholy guest. 



90 



CHEIST CLEANSING 



Jesus can never come into the temple of 
your soul and drive out the evil guests that 
are despoiling you, except by your invitation. 
Even a little child has the absolute power of 
choice and may keep Christ out of his heart, 
if he so wills. "We cannot throw off this per- 
sonal responsibility for our own conduct. 

In the midst of the civil war, when there 
had been a meeting of the governors of the 
Northern States which had passed resolutions 
declaring that there ought to be a more ag- 
gressive campaign, a congressman from Rhode 
Island, Mr. Dixon, was appointed to represent 
their wishes to the President. This gentleman 
went to the White House one evening to de- 
liver himself of his mission. 

Mr. Lincoln listened without interruption to 
what Mr. Dixon had to say. When he was 
through, the President said to him : " Dixon, 
you are a good fellow, and I have always had 
a high opinion of you. It is needless for me 
to add that what comes from those who sent 
you here is authoritative. The governors of 
the Northern States are the North. What 
they decide must be carried out. Still, in 
justice to myself, you must remember that 
Abraham Lincoln is the President of the 
United States. Anything that the President 



THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL. 



91 



of the United States does, right or wrong, will 
be the act of Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham 
Lincoln will by the people be held responsible 
for the President's action. But I have a propo- 
sition to make to you. Gro home and think the 
matter over. Come to me to-morrow morning 
at nine o'clock, and I will promise to do any- 
thing that you by then have determined upon 
as the right and proper thing to do. Grood 
night." 

Mr. Dixon left the White House feeling 
highly gratified by the honor that had been 
put upon him. He soon dismissed this pleas- 
ant thought, however, and began seriously 
consulting with himself as to what should 
be done when the responsibility fell on him 
to decide the policy of the President of the 
United States. Many suggestions occurred to 
him, but one after another each was dismissed 
as for some reason out of the question. When 
the morning light broke he had not deter- 
mined upon his course, upon the policy which 
he was to impose upon the President. He 
decided he would not go to the White House 
that morning. He did not go the next day, 
nor the next. 

Indeed, three weeks went by before he saw 
the President. Then it was at a reception at 



92 THE TEMPLE OF THE SOUL, 



Secretary Seward's, and Mr. Dixon tried to get 
by in the crowd without attracting special at- 
tention. But the long arm of the President 
shot out, his hand grasped Dixon's and drew 
him one side. 

" By the way, Dixon," said Mr. Lincoln, " I 
believe I had an appointment with you one 
morning about three weeks ago." 

Mr. Dixon said he did recall a mention of 
something of the sort. 

"Where have you been all these weeks?" 
asked the President. 

"Here in Washington," said Mr. Dixon; 
" but to tell the truth, Mr. President, I have 
decided never to keep that appointment." 

" I thought you would not when I made it 
for you," was Mr. Lincoln's comment. 

And it is just as hard, just as impossible, 
for you to put off the responsibility of your 
own conduct as it was for Abraham Lincoln. 
You are the keeper of the temple of your own 
soul, and although Christ will come to the 
door and knock, he will never come in unless 
you open the door and invite him. Will you 
not do that this very hour ? 



CHRIST AS THE GARDENER. 



" She turned herself back, and saw Jesns standing, and 
knew not that it was J esus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, 
why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, sup- 
posing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if 
thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid 
him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, 
Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Eabboni ; 
which is to say, Master." — John xx. 14-16. 

In the days immediately after the resurrec- 
tion Jesus appeared to his disciples in many 
forms. And that is what he is always doing 
to men and women in our own time. He ap- 
pears in a different form to every one of us. 
To some he comes as he came to the disciples 
in the storm at night, when they thought he 
was a spirit and cried out with fright. There 
are many people to whom Christ now appears 
to be only a ghost to haunt them on the 
stormy voyage of life. If they would but 
listen to him, however, they would hear him 

93 



94 CHJRIST AS THE GABBENEB. 



saying as of old, " Be of good cheer ; it is I ; 
be not afraid.'' To some Christ conies as a 
deliverer. Their sense of bondage to sin is so 
keen that the supreme cry of their hearts is 
for some one strong enough to unlock the 
prison doors and spring back the great iron 
bolts that hold fast the dungeon walls of their 
prison. To such Christ comes as the liberator 
to set them free, and they ever think of him 
as a heroic Saviour. Others there are, whose 
souls have long been hungry and starved for 
hope and sympathy and love, to whom Christ 
comes as does the harvest after an Indian 
famine, with abundance of bread. Jesus to 
them is the bread of life ; they feed upon the 
bread sent down from heaven. Still others, 
like Paul, are smitten down by the light at 
noonday ; by the glory of that Light which is 
greater than the brightness of the sun, and 
ever after, looking backward to the old days 
of blindness and darkness, Christ seems to 
them to be the light-bringer. Christ comes 
to many in childhood with the tenderness of 
a shepherd who carries the lambs in his 
bosom. A little boy who had been accus- 
tomed to seeing every day in his play-room 
a picture of the Good Shepherd carrying a 
little lamb in his arms was confronted with 



CEBIST AS THE GABBENEB. 95 

the picture of the Madonna and her Child. 
He looked up into my face and asked, "Is 
that the Good Shepherd when he was a baby?" 
There are many to whom Christ comes as 
naturally as that, and who are led on through 
all the days of childhood by his gentle spirit, 
who never know what it is to stray away from 
the Shepherd's side. There ought to be many 
more than there are of that class. I doubt if 
Christianity, or rather the Christian church, 
is acting with so little wisdom at any other 
point as it is in relation to children. Our 
childi'en should be consecrated to Christ in 
infancy and be given over to his care and 
training with never a thought of a period for 
the sowing of wild oats which must be up- 
rooted again in penitence and sorrow. Isaiah 
says, Peace to him that is far off, and to him 
that is near," and if we do our full duty by 
childhood the overwhelming majority of our 
children reared in Christian homes will be 
kept ever near to the side of the Shepherd 
Christ. 

But I wish especially to call your attention 
to the form in which Christ appeared to Mary 
at the sepulcher. Joseph's tomb, where Christ 
had been bimed, was in the midst of a garden ; 
and when Mary turned about and saw Jesus 



96 CHRIST AS THE GABBENEB, 



clothed in the ordinary garb of a gardener 
she thought he was the gardener. What pur- 
pose Christ had in thus appearing to her we 
do not know, and yet we surely do not in any 
way distort Scripture meaning by studying 
this figure as representing Christ's cultivation 
of our hearts. Christ is the gardener of every 
soul that yields to him. In one of his parables 
he especially sets himself forth as a gardener. 
He tells the story of a certain man who had a 
fig-tree in his vineyard; and this man came 
and sought fruit year after year, but the tree 
was always barren and fruitless. So there 
came a day when he said to the gardener, " I 
have been coming every year now for three 
years to taste the figs on this tree and have 
never found any. Cut it down; why should 
it be left to cumber the ground?" But the 
gardener had sympathy for the tree and pleaded 
for it. He begged the owner of the vineyard 
to let it alone for another year and during 
that year he would fertilize the soil, and dig 
carefully about the roots of the tree, and if it 
bear fruit, well and good; but if it still re- 
mained barren after that, it should be cut 
down. I think we can take that parable as 
illustrating Christ's gardening in human hearts. 
There is a sense in which we are all trees in 



CHEIST AS THE GABBENEB, 97 



Q-od's vineyard. Some of us are barren trees, 
yielding no fruit; but as the barren tree in 
the vineyard drinks in the sunshine and the 
summer dew and the spring showers the same 
as the trees that are full of fruit, so Grod sends 
his rain upon the just and the unjust, and the 
sinful man receives the blessings of Grod, giv- 
ing opportunity and privilege for every good 
thing to come into his life, the same as does 
the rtghteous. Not one of us is so poor and 
barren in moral and spiritual inheritance but 
that it is possible for us to bear fruit unto 
G-od If we yfeld ourselves completely to the 
Heavenly Grardener. 

It is the glory of the skillful gardener that 
he is able to make common plants develop 
into forms of beauty and usefulness that the 
ignorant gardener would never dream of pro- 
ducing. In the great gardens scientific men 
are every year producing new combinations in 
roses and carnations and many other flowers. 
I remember last year a certain Eastern florist 
paid many thousands of dollars for the exclu- 
sive privilege of growing in America a new 
carnation which had been developed in Eng- 
land. It is the glory of great artists in every 
department of life that they are able to bring 
much out of little; that they can give value 



98 CHBIST AS THE GAEBENEB. 



and splendor to common things. Dr. W. L. 
Watkinson says that on visiting an art-gallery 
recently he noticed that some of the greatest 
pictures had not a splendid thing in them. 
The ordinary artist when he wants to be effec- 
tive paints in a breadth of golden harvest, or 
he portrays a kingfisher or some other iri- 
descent bird, or a tree in bloom, or that capti- 
vating thing, a rainbow. But you will notice 
that some of the greatest painters that ever 
lived never touch these things. They take 
common things — a railway cut, a plowed 
field; no conspicuous object; only the black 
earth, the brown earth, the red earth; but 
their touch is a supreme touch, so that you 
can see the blossom in the dust, and the rain- 
bow in the cloud; and the picture, although 
it contains not a brilliant thing, is bathed in 
imagination, poetry and beauty. So Christ 
can take the most common human plants in 
his garden and develop them into the most 
indescribable beauty and interest. 

Just think of some of the human plants that 
grew in Christ's garden when he was here on 
earth — a man who had a whole legion of 
devils ; and Mary Magdalene, who had seven ; 
and fretful and peevish Martha ; an old beg- 
gar, Bartimseus, blind since he was born; 



CHBIST AS THE GABBENER 



99 



Zacchaeus, the tax-collector; a handful of 
fishermen without education or standing. 
Jesus picked up people like that, and how 
they blossomed under his hands ! They have 
grown into the heart of the world for eighteen 
hundred years, and the sweet fragrance of 
their Christian graces bless humanity in every 
land. 

What Christ did with these people he can 
do with us. In soul-gardening it is possible 
for the gardener to impart his own nature to 
the sensitive human plant under his care. It 
is said that among the Dutch the rose is some- 
times cultivated by planting a rose of ordinary 
variety close to a rose of unusual beauty and 
fragrance. The common rose is carefully 
watched and its anthers removed so as to 
avoid its propagating its own species ; the ob- 
ject being that it shall be poUenized by the 
superior rose. Gradually the rose thus treated 
takes upon itself the characteristics of the 
nobler and sweeter life of its neighbor. This 
is a striking illustration of what happens when 
we permit ourselves to be planted in the gar- 
den of Jesus. Our lives receive the gracious 
influences of his own divine spirit. We be- 
come like him. We lose the characteristics of 
the lower life to which we have been accus- 



100 CHBIST AS THE GABDENEB, 



tomed, and begin to show the indications of 
the nobler and sweeter life of him who is the 
Rose of Sharon. How can any intelligent 
man or woman refuse to yield the heart to 
this Divine Gardener ? 

I do not doubt that some of you are greatly 
discouraged by your own lives. You have 
had much higher ideals for yourself than you 
have ever realized. You have meant to live 
a much nobler life, and to perform deeds of 
rarer value, than any that have ever been put 
down to your credit. But you have never 
yielded your heart to the care of him who is 
able to make out of your life something far 
better than the things you have hoped for but 
failed to accomplish. If you have tried in 
your own strength and are not satisfied with 
your success, why not give your life over into 
Christ's hands ? A young man who was con- 
verted a few months ago told me recently that 
when I had long pleaded with him to come 
to Christ, and seemed ready to give up in dis- 
couragement, the thing that started him was 
my final sentence, "It cannot do you any 
harm, anyhow." And so I say to you, it can- 
not, by any possibility, do you any harm to 
obey Jesus Christ, and yield yourself to be led 
by his hand. This young man says now that 



CHBIST AS THE GABBENEE. 101 



it not only did him no harm, but has been of 
more good to him than anything that has ever 
come into his life. Yon will say the same if 
yon surrender yonr life to the training of 
Jesus. 

There is something very touching in the 
parable of the unfruitful fig-tree, where Christ 
pictures himself as interceding in behalf of the 
unfruitful soul. How many years has Grod 
been coming to your life seeking in vain for 
the fruit of thought and conversation and 
conduct which he had a right to expect. In- 
stead, perhaps, there has been bitter fruit, 
fruit that could do no one any good, and it 
may be has done much harm. Bring this 
home to your own heart, and think of that 
barren tree as yourself. Hear God saying : 
"Cut down the unfruitful tree. Cut down 
this useless life. I have been coming year after 
year to this man, or this woman, seeking for 
fruit and finding none. Cut them down. Why 
should they cumber the ground ? " And then 
hear Jesus as he pleads for you: "Let him 
alone one year more ; let me fertilize the soil 
with the preaching of the gospel, and the 
invitation of Christian neighbors, and the re- 
bukes of conscience, and the whispered plead- 
ing of the Holy Spirit; perhaps he will turn 



102 CHRIST AS THE GABBENEJR. 



and repent, and all will be well; but if he 
does not, then shall he be cut down." When 
that last year's limit is made, none of us can 
tell. You may be in that period now. Possi- 
bly it is already drawing near to a close. It 
is a solemn thought. But, thank God, the 
probation has not yet ended, and this very 
hour you may by the divine grace and the 
forgiving mercy of Christ be transformed in 
your inmost nature so that you will begin to 
bear fruit unto righteousness. 



THE COIN OF THE HEAET. 



Whose is this image and superscription?" — Matt. 
xxii. 20. 

The enemies of Jesus were deep in plans 
and plots to get Mm into trouble with the 
Roman government. They had concocted a 
scheme which they thought was sure to suc- 
ceed, whatever course he should pursue. They 
would ask him whether it would be right to 
pay tribute to Caesar. They reasoned that if 
he said ''No," the Roman authorities would 
have him arrested as a traitor and disturber 
of the peace; while if he said ''Yes,'' he would 
become unpopular with the people, who de- 
spised the Roman government. But these 
plotters were caught in their own trap. Christ 
at once perceived the malice of their purpose 
and said to them : " Show me the tribute- 
money." Upon this they brought him a 
penny and he, taking it in his hand, inquired : 

103 



104 The coin of the heabt, 

"Wiiose is this image and superscription?" 
On their replying that it was Caesar's, he an- 
swered: "Render therefore unto Caesar the 
things which be Caesar's, and unto God the 
things which be Grod's." When they heard that 
they went away biting their lips. 

The thought I wish to present is the simple 
fact that the heart of man belongs to God. 
Man is, so to speak, God's coin. As Queen 
Victoria appears in her image on the coins 
of Great Britain, so God's image is on the 
human heart. No race has been found so 
lost in heathenism but that some trace of 
God's superscription and image is found in it. 
Over the trails into the Klondike thousands 
of men, good and bad, are tramping, but no- 
thing more splendid will ever happen there 
than the act of an Indian mother who, caught 
in the first winter storm on the mountain pass, 
stripped herself almost to the skin while she 
kept her babe warm and safe. She was dis- 
covered kneeling in the snow with the un- 
harmed babe in her arms. It is not hard to 
trace in that child of the forest the superscrip- 
tion of him of whom it is said that he will 
comfort his people as a mother comforteth 
her child. 

The church needs to keep this great fact 



THE COIN OF THE HEABT 



105 



ever before its eyes. We must never lose out 
of our hearts the living, vital knowledge of 
the truth that all men belong to Grod. How- 
ever sinful they now are, however defaced the 
image of God may be, down in the human 
heart there lies the divine coin that is worth 
saving, and which may be saved by devotion 
and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. 

A remarkably interesting experiment in 
gold-mining is being successfully worked in 
the Snake River in Idaho. It has long been 
known that enormous quantities of fine gold 
are washed down the creeks and rivers from 
the great gold-yielding mountains of the 
Northwest and lost in the gravel-bars and 
mud-flats of the larger streams. Now and 
then a gravel-bar has been worked with suc- 
cess, but nothing has been done on a large 
scale. An enterprising man has now con- 
ceived and built a number of boats fitted to 
work backward and forward across the stream, 
with an immense suction-pipe worked by steam, 
the nose of which is kept to the gravel-bar in 
the bed of the river, which sucks up the sand 
and gravel, or anything else within its reach. 
All this material is delivered into a sluice on 
board the boat. The coarse stones are carried 
by an endless chain over the side of the boat 



106 THE COIN OF THE HEABT. 

into the water again, and the gold-bearing 
sand is carried over burlap tables, and finally 
over copper plates, where the gold is amalga- 
mated and saved. 

The Christian church may learn a lesson 
from this experiment in mining. Innumera- 
ble particles of human gold have been swept 
away by rapid currents of evil from the home 
veins of settled and successful life. This 
drift-gold, which in our American cities 
comes not only from our own farms and 
villages but from the homes of every nation 
under heaven, we have been altogether too 
ready to give over as hopeless of salvation. 
All we need is the devotion and consecration 
and faith that was evinced by the disciples at 
Pentecost, and this human drift-gold shall be 
amalgamated and saved. Grod is as willing 
now as then to give the Holy Spirit in the 
same mighty power. We need to feel to the 
very core of our hearts that every man we 
meet, no matter how defiled by sin, is, after 
all, one of God's coins and has in his heart 
somewhere that which answers to the message 
of the gospel. 

Seeing that our hearts are Grod's coins, we 
ought to give him the complete possession of 
them for this divine service. The great work 



THE COIN OF THE HEABT. 



107 



that tells most is that in which the whole heart 
is thrown. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, the author of 
" The Battle Hymn of the Republic," in telling 
how she came to write those famous lines that 
sent a thrill of inspiration through all loyal 
hearts, says that her heart was filled with 
yearning to do something for her country. She 
could not fight, and could not leave her f amilj^ 
to go as a nurse. This thought continued to 
oppress her, and before long the conviction 
possessed her mind that she should write a 
war-song. It seemed a spirit within her striv- 
ing for freedom. She retired one night with 
this subject uppermost in her thoughts and 
awoke in the night to find the verses had al- 
most written themselves. I wrote ' The Bat- 
tle Hymn of the Republic,' " said Mrs. Howe, 
"because I could not help it." Great things 
happen in the salvation of souls wherever 
there are men and women who serve Grod and 
who carry the good news of Jesus Christ and 
his salvation in that spirit. There is a joyous 
inspiration, an ecstasy of gladness, about such 
whole-hearted service which is irresistible. 
John Burroughs says that the most interesting 
feature of bird-songs is the wing-song, or song 
of ecstasy. It seems to spring from some more 
intense excitement and self-abandonment than 



108 THE COIN OF THE HEABT. 



the ordinary songs delivered from the perch. 
When the bird's joy reaches the point of rap- 
ture it is literally carried off its feet, and up 
it goes into the air, pouring out its songs as 
a rocket pours its sparks. "We ought to learn 
a lesson from the skylarks and bobolinks and 
vesper-sparrows. You may rest assured the 
gospel will never sound so sweet on a sinner's 
ear as when he hears it from the lips of a 
Christian who yields himself up completely 
as a coin in the hand of God and pours his 
whole heart into a delightful service of love. 
When men and women serve Grod in that 
way they are like old violins — they con- 
stantly get sweeter. Expert violinists tell us 
that the tones of all \dolins become mellower 
with age and use. When new, they have a 
certain thickness or woodiness of tone, which, 
in most of them, degenerates into an actual 
harshness. Where this woodiness is very 
marked, the violin seems to the player him- 
self to have a very powerful tone, but to the 
listener stationed at a little distance the tone 
may sound very weak. Many human hearts 
are so given over to worldliness that even 
though they bear the name of Christian the 
tone is worldly, and gives out little of the at- 
tractive music of the skies; but if we yield 



IRE COIN OF IKE REABI 109 

ourselves to be completely used by Christ, as 
the years go on our hearts will become mel- 
low and sweet with the spirit of our Lord. 

But I am sure there must be some message 
here for those of you who are not Christians. 
Some of you are allowing the image of Grod 
in your heart to be covered over by sin. This 
coin which belongs to Grod is being used by 
the evil one. You are losing the richest trea- 
sure of life in your pursuit of treasures that 
will soon perish. Last summer a man took 
a band of sheep to Alaska expecting to sell 
his mutton to the miners at Dawson City. 
He drove the sheep in over the Dawson trail. 
Some time before the mining city was reached, 
cold weather came on, and he decided to kill 
his sheep. He killed and sold three hundred 
and received nearly twenty thousand dollars 
for them. Then he concluded to hold what 
he had left for a better market. He killed 
the remaining four hundred in a secluded 
place off the line of travel, and suspended the 
carcases on poles far enough above the ground 
to be out of reach of bears, wolves, or other 
wild animals. He left two young men to 
watch the mutton and started out prospecting 
for gold. His stay was so prolonged that the 
young men determined to pay a visit to Daw- 



110 



THE COIN OF THE HEABT, 



son, which, they imagined to be only a few 
miles away. It proved to be one hundred 
miles to Dawson, and when the owner of the 
sheep returned to inspect his wealth, he found 
four hundred bleaching skeletons. The eagles, 
ravens, crows, kites, hawks, and other birds of 
prey throughout all that region, had gathered 
together and feasted on his mutton until it 
was all gone. Alas ! there are many who lose 
far more valuable treasures in the same way. 
Men think the treasures of the soul can wait 
while they go prospecting for all manner of 
earthly good. Many a father and mother 
neglect the spiritual training of their children 
while they are little, thinking that it is more 
important to get rich, or to make a success of 
earthly life, and expecting after a while to win 
them all to Christ; but they awaken when it 
is too late to find out that while they have 
been bent on worldliness the devil's birds of 
prey have plucked from their children's hearts 
that which was most valuable. 

No man can afford to let his spiritual nature 
wait on anything. Whatever else a man may 
lose, he cannot afford to lose there. Other 
losses are only temporary, but that loss is 
eternaL What matters it if a man gains the 
whole world and then loses his own soul? 



THE COIN OF THE HEAET. 



Ill 



One Sunday evening an earnest pastor spoke 
to a bright and attractive girl and, urging that 
delay might be dangerous, pleaded with her to 
accept Christ then. But the words were vain. 
As the pastor turned away with a heavy heart, 
the girl hastily wrote in her song-book the 
fatal words, I'll risk it.'' A few months later 
the minister was called in haste to speak if he 
could a word of comfort to this same young 
woman, who had been suddenly smitten down 
with illness and had been given up to die. 
Again the pastor pleaded for a changed heart, 
but with a look of despair in her eyes the 
dying girl re^jlied : " It cannot be ; my heart is 
cold, dead. When you spoke to me months 
ago I was moved, but I stifled the nobler im- 
pulse, and as you left wrote in a book the 
words, ^I'll risk it.' And the Spirit left me." 
And she died in despair. I beg of you not to 
take that awful risk. The interests at stake 
are too great, and the loss is too irretrievable. 
Give Christ your heart here and now ! 



THE BEAUTY OF SEEVICE. 



My soul is weary of my life." — Joh x. 1. 
For to me to live is Christ." — PM. i. 21. 

This first text sounds like the wail of a 
lost soul. The second is a shout of victory. 
They represent two extremes of human living. 
They are both common experiences in human 
life. Many of us have known each of them, 
at different times in our experience. One of 
the saddest things one meets in this human 
procession which never ceases to throng about 
us, is the many people who have lost hope ; 
for whom all enthusiasm and attractive charm 
of life have died out. With some it died hard, 
like the djdng nerve in a tooth ; but the life- 
less eye, the languid step, and the hopeless 
conversation tell the sad tale of a soul that 
has wearied of its existence. 

The increasing number of people who, under 
such circumstances, wickedly put an end to 

112 



THE BEAUTY OF SEEVICE, 



113 



their own existence is an alarming feature of 
our own times. Only this week, in a neigh- 
boring street, a young wife, yet in the flower 
of her girlhood, destroyed by her own hand 
the beautiful creation of womanhood which 
God had committed to her. The reason seems 
to have been that she had wearied of life and 
it had lost its charm. Hope and love disap- 
pearing, there was left an aching void which 
nothing else could fill and the pain of which 
she could not endure. 

While the temptation to suicide is probably 
not common to any of you who hear me, yet 
I am sure that all will bear witness that there 
is no harder bm-den to carry than the mere 
monotony of existence, when life has lost its 
attractiveness. It is what the French call 
ennuL It is the most trying disease and the 
most incurable, from a worldly standpoint, 
that afflicts humanity. Colt on says : Ennui 
has made more gamblers than avarice, more 
drunkards than thirst, and more suicides than 
despair." The strongest minds have suffered 
most keenly from this affliction. Aristotle, 
the mightiest of merely human philosophers, 
suffered untold agony from what we com- 
monly call the blues," and finally so wearied 
of his existence that he died the death of 



114 THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 

a suicide. Bismarck, the greatest German 
statesman for a hundred years, and one of 
the greatest in the world's history, suffered 
from the same cause. The fact is that it is 
impossible that a worldly life, no matter how 
intellectual, or how high the scale on which it 
is lived, or how wide the reach of its power, or 
how rich the treasures of wealth at its dis- 
posal, should fail to pall on the palate of an 
immortal being. Men high and low, rich and 
poor, have come at last to cry out with Solo- 
mon, " All is vanity and vexation of spirit ! " 

It is well for us to lay the emphasis on the 
truth that not only is a sinful life disappoint- 
ing, but that however harmless it may seem 
to be, a merely worldly and selfish life must 
in the end prove to be only ashes to the man 
who leads it. Struggle, physical, intellectual 
and spiritual, is necessary to real human in- 
terest. It is said that of all fascinating places 
under the sun the island of Tahiti, one of the 
Society Islands, takes the lead. In that coun- 
try — a little earth lost in a vast ocean — 
nature has done everything which could be 
done in a physical way to make indolent souls 
happy. The climate is temperate and equable 
all the year round ; the vegetation is luxuriant 
and the nights full of perfume and mystical 



THE BEAUTY OF SEEVICE. 



115 



light. The influence of this dreamy, lazy life 
is very insidious. It is not necessary to work, 
as the island furnishes food without the labor 
of tillage. Many Americans and French, hav- 
ing gone there for a visit, have become so en- 
raptured with the languorous existence that, 
like the visitors to Lotus Land, they lie down 
and forget friends, home, ambition, and every- 
thing. It is, however, the languor of stupe- 
faction and death. One never heard of any 
great soul emerging to any worthy purpose or 
deed out of such an existence. The barren 
sands of Cape Cod with its thin soil and harsh 
climate are a thousand times more likely to 
develop men and women into worthy beings 
than such an Eden-like paradise. 

It is a comfort to turn away from this as- 
pect of life, the temptation to which we have 
all known, and listen to Paul's triumphant ex- 
clamation, For to me to live is Christ." Life 
was constantly interesting to Paul because it 
was unselfish. Selfishness had died out in his 
heart. Had he been wrapped up in himself, 
thinking of his own disappointments and de- 
feats, and figuring constantly on the outlook 
for his own future in this world, he would 
certainly have had a most monotonous and 
weary time. But Paul had consecrated his 



116 



THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE. 



life to Jesus Christ. His scars were the marks 
of the Lord Jesus." His chains were the 
badge of the fact that he was the " prisoner of 
Jesus Christ." Wherever he was, he was stand- 
ing in Christ's stead as Christ's minister, as 
Christ's man, to show forth his Lord and pro- 
claim his message. As Christ was in the 
world to minister to its needs, so Paul was in 
the world to share the Christ-life. It was im- 
possible that such a life should grow monot- 
onous or dull. Paul obtained his happiness 
and joy through this supreme devotion to 
Christ. If Paul had been seeking for happi- 
ness it is hard to think of a place in his whole 
ministry where he could have found it. The 
storm at sea, the shipwreck, the island fire 
vfhere the viper fastened on his hand, the 
Ephesian amphitheater where he fought with 
wild beasts, Lystra where he was mobbed and 
stoned, Philippi where he was thrust into the 
stocks, Eome where he was the prisoner of 
Nero — surely none of these were hopeful 
places in which to seek after happiness, and if 
this had been Paul's purpose in life he would 
have come to old age one of the most miser- 
able of men. 

Happiness is one of the most elusive things 
in the world. The people who seek it never 



THE BEAUTY OF SEE VICE. 



117 



find it. The men and Tvomen who live that 
they may be happy, and are always planning 
and scheming with that end in view, never 
know what really pnre happiness is. Happi- 
ness comes to people, if it comes at all, as the 
reward of service. It comes Ijecanse of what 
a man is and what he is doing. Paul and 
Silas, for instance, were very happy in the 
dungeon at midnight. They had been whipped 
until their backs were sore, they were physi- 
cally himgry and tired, but they were full of 
joy as the servants of Christ, and their songs 
and triumphant spirit led to the conversion of 
the jailer and his family. Happiness will come 
to us when we live in the same spirit. It was 
infinite joy to Paul to lift men and women 
upward out of their sins and their littleness 
into the great spirit in which he lived, and into 
the higher and holier manhood which he had 
come to know in Jesus Christ. The degrada- 
tion of the heathen world preyed upon him 
and became the haunting man of Macedonia 
to him because the possibilities of manhood 
which he had come to know in Christ Jesus 
seemed so high and so precious. The beauty 
and joy of service cannot be fully known to 
us unless we have given ourselves to Christ in 
the same way and see in the splendor of 



118 THE BEAUTY OF SEBVICE. 

Christ's character the manhood which is pos- 
sible to the most degraded of om- fellow- 
beings. 

In a Western town, not long ago, a crowd 
had gathered before a large glass window 
fronting on the street. They were attracted 
by a magnificent white-headed eagle which 
was held a prisoner inside the window. 
There was a chain from its right foot to a 
huge piece of iron, some water in a pan, an 
untouched piece of fish, a few sods, and a 
large card with the words, "For Sale." The 
big bird's wings drooped to its feet on either 
side ; its eyes were glazed and dim ; it opened 
and shut them now and then, but never once 
turned them to the jostling, noisy crowd that 
stood just outside the glass. There were no 
marks of violence to be seen, but the dull 
pathetic eyes, the drooping wings, the soiled 
white about the head, and the ruffled feathers 
over the body showed that the captive had 
been in chains much longer than it had been 
in the window. Suddenly a young moun- 
taineer who had just come to town pushed his 
way to the front and for a long time looked 
silently at the great helpless bird. He was 
sure he had seen it before. It had been cap- 
tured, he learned from what some of the 



THE BEAUTY OF SERVICE, 



119 



crowd said, in the conntry from which he had 
come. That settled it ; it was the same bird. 
He had seen it on the mountain where he 
sometimes had hunted for a stray sheep. He 
knew the big pine in the top of which it had 
its nest. He had noted it soar majestically 
about him as he worked in the valley, and he 
had seen it sit motionless for hours on the top 
of some tall, distant crag. The mountaineer 
elbowed his way along the window to the 
door of the store and went in. 

"What d'ye want for that bird?'' he said. 
" I'd like to buy him." 

" Two dollars," was the reply. 

" Very well ; I'll take him." 

He paid over the money, and the bird was 
handed out to him. The crowd at the window 
watched eagerly as the mountaineer came out 
with the big eagle under his arm, and went 
straight across the street to where a ladder 
leaned against a bill-board that was some ten 
or twelve feet high. At the foot of the ladder 
he stopped and took the chain from the bird's 
leg; then he went slowly up and placed his 
old friend on the top of the bill-board and 
came down. 

The great bird seemed for a time to have 
forgotten how to be free. It sat stupidly 



120 THE BEAUTY OF SEEVICE. 



as it had in the window. But gradually it 
came to itself. It lifted first one drooping 
wing and tucked it closely to its side, then the 
other. It raised itself slowly to its full height, 
and stretched out its great head toward the 
sky. The dullness went out of the eyes, and 
a fierce new light flashed in. Then, nervously 
stretching out its huge pinions on either side 
and taking a step forward, it rose with a 
hoarse scream and swept out toward the sun. 

A burst of applause from the crowd met 
the mountaineer as he recrossed the street. 
He simply said: "I had seen him on the 
mountain, and I couldn't bear to see him 
there.'' 

So a man who has seen humanity glorified 
in Jesus Christ, who has seen it on the moun- 
tain-top in the noble life of Jesus, and has 
come into fellowship with that life, can never 
again see humanity in chains, held down by 
wicked habits, degraded by impure and vulgar 
living, without a deep longing to give back 
again its wings, and its freedom, and the 
mountain air of holiness to which it belongs. 
About such service there is a joy infinitely 
more precious than can come from any lowly 
source. It is the joy of the life of Christ. 
The more thoroughly we throw ourselves into 



THE BEAUTY OF SEEVICE. 121 

that life the more complete will be our joy. 
We shall thus come to imderstand what Christ 
meant when he said to his disciples that he 
wonld leave his joy with them and no man 
would be able to take it away from them. 

Let ns seek to know the joy of Christ, to 
enter into the beauty and the gladness of ser- 
vice. Often when we have been giving our- 
selves up to work for the church and to 
service in Christ's kingdom, we have been 
tempted to yield before criticism or other 
difficulty and imagine that we would be hap- 
pier to give it all up and live our own self- 
indulgent life, seeking only oui^ personal good. 
All such temptations are from the evil one. 
The only truly happy people in this world, 
the people who have an abiding joy, are those 
who are able to say with Paul : " For to me 
to live is Christ." 

People who live lives like Frances Willard, 
and Lord Shaftesbury, and Clara Barton, who 
enter into the fellowship of suffering with 
Christ's poor and burdened and tempted 
brothers and sisters, rise up also to the moun- 
tain-top of beauty and joy that the world 
cannot give and cannot take away. 



JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 

He went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sit- 
ting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, 
Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him. 
And Levi made him a great feast in his own house : and 
there was a great company of publicans and of others 
that sat down with them. But their scribes and Phari- 
sees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye 
eat and drink with publicans and sinners'? And Jesus 
answering said unto them, They that are whole need not 
a physician ; but they that are sick. I came not to call 
the righteous, but sinners to repentance." — LuJce v., 27-32. 

Heee is a man who got a new name by 
coming to Christ. His old name was Levi, 
which signifies a Hnk ; but when he followed 
Christ and became an apostle his name was 
changed to Matthew, which means " the gift 
of God." Matthew was a cousin of Jesus 
Christ. His father was Cleopas, and his 
mother a sister of Mary, the mother of Christ. 
Jesus had known him all his life. Matthew 

122 



JESUS AT 21 AT THEWS DIXXEB. 123 

was 8. stray sheep in the family. He was the 
skeleton in the household closet of Cleopas. 
There was not anything that he conld have 
done to hurt and shame his family more than 
to become a tax-collector of the hated Roman 
government. How it ever came about we do 
not know. Perhaps he fell into bad company, 
and, the family being poor, determined to 
make money at any cost. At any rate we are 
sure that his father and mother never thought 
of him without great pain, and it was, no 
doubt, the one theme about which the neigh- 
bors never spoke to them. 

Knowing what we do about the character 
of Jesus, we are not surprised that he should 
seek to bring this wanderer back to the family 
flock, or to learn that one day he determined 
to make a special effort to save Matthew. He 
walked straight down to the place where 
Matthew was busy collecting taxes from fish- 
ermen and traders. We do not know what 
he said except that the great burden of his 
theme was that Matthew should follow him ; 
but there was such a charm about his words 
that they took hold of Matthew's heart, and 
without waiting to think the matter over 
further, he got right up from his desk, or 
money-changing table, and f oUowed Christ. 



124 JESUS AT JIAT THEWS DINNEB. 

We may learn from this that Christ does 
not give a man up because he is a hard case. 
We give people np altogether too easy. Be- 
cause a man is worldly^ and given over to 
money-getting or sinful pleasure, is no sign 
that he is ha]3py in such a course. Many a 
man so situated thinks nobody cares for his 
soul. Possibly Matthew was having that sort 
of a feeling the day J esus came along and so 
lovingly entreated him to become one of his 
disciples. If we take Christ with us we need 
not be afraid to go to any one and urge him 
to forsake his sins. 

Doubtless Christ found it much easier to 
persuade Matthew to come back again to a 
righteous life because of his memory of a 
good father and mother. He had not forgot- 
ten the prayers that he had heard offered up 
at the fireside. I wish we could have more 
open and earnest expression of family reli- 
gion than we do. Mr. William Shaw, the 
treasurer of the Christian Endeavor Society, 
fell into a conversation with a gentleman in 
the writing-room of a city hotel, who told 
him this story : For many years he had been 
a nominal Christian, but never took any ac- 
tive part in church work. He had one child, 
a sturdy boy a little past three years old. 



JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNEB, 125 

They had no family prayer ; but his wife, 
who was an earnest Christian woman, always 
had the little boy say his prayers before he 
went to bed. Frequently, after his prayer was 
finished, the little boy would look up into his 
mother's face and say, Mamma, why doesn^t 
papa pray I " The wife often told the husband 
about it, and urged him to have family pray- 
ers, but he was indifferent to her recjuest. 
One Sunday evening their pastor's sermon 
contained a message for this man, and he 
went home from the service, took down the 
Bible, and said, "Wife, we'll have family 
prayers to-night." 

The boy was all attention as he read the 
chapter, and when they knelt while he offered 
a brief and broken prayer. Then the little 
fellow climbed up into his father's lap, put 
his arms around his neck, and said as he 
kissed him, " I'se so glad papa prayed." 
When his mother put him to bed that night, 
he kept repeating over and over, I'se so 
glad papa prayed." 

The next day the father went to his work, 
and in the middle of the forenoon he was called 
home. While his mother was in the back 
part of the house, the child had climbed up 
on the open fire-grate to get something off 



126 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DIJSfNEB. 

the mantel. His little dress caught fire, and 
he ran screaming into the front yard. Before 
any one conld get to him his clothes were all 
burned off and he was unconscious and lived 
but a short time. 

The father said that as he looked at the 
little body from which the spirit had gone to 
the Saviour of the little ones, his sweetest 
comfort was the words, "I'se so glad papa 
prayed." " I would not take all the wealth of 
the world," said the father, " in exchange for 
the memory of those last words of my boy, 
' I'se so glad papa prayed.' " 

There is nothing parents can do for their 
children that will be so great a comfort to 
their heart in the future, or so rich a treasure 
for the children themselves, as to set before 
them the example of a genuine and faithful 
Christian life. A boy who has had a home like 
that finds it easy to believe that Grod's heart 
has the tenderness of the old home feeling for 
him, even though he has wandered far into 
sin. 

An observer watching the sailing of the 
steamship Australia from San Francisco for 
the Klondike, the other day, specially noted 
two interesting farewells. One strapping young 
fellow wrung the hand of an old man of mill- 



JESUS AT MATTHEW'S BINNEB, 127 



tary bearing. " Well, Jack," the father said, 
I wish you all kinds of good luck, and, my 
boy, whatever you do, don't drink ! " A mo- 
ment later, with a gulp in his throat, he said : 
Grood-bye. I can't stand about here or I will 
lose my courage and beg you to stay." And 
with another handshake he was gone. Another 
young man was given Grodspeed by his old fa- 
ther, and the parent's voice broke as he said : 
" Now, George, you know there is always a 
good home to come to if you don't strike any- 
thing. Don't stay up there and suffer because 
of any false pride. If you can't get a fortune 
this season come back. You will have as good 
a show here as many others, and you can al- 
ways count on a good home ! " Now I can 
imagine that one of those boys would be 
touched in a tender place when he read in 
his Bible, ''As a father pitietli his children, 
so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." 

Matthew did the very best thing possible 
when he made his discipleship as open and 
public as he could. The next thing we hear 
about him is that he has made a public dinner 
for Christ and invited in his acquaintances. 
He sent out invitations to publicans and sin- 
ners who would be most likely to profit by 
coming into close personal touch with Jesus. 



128 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S BINNEB. 

He made this dinner in his own house and 
invited his old friends to come and meet 
Christ there. If Matthew had any fear that 
he might be drawn back into his old associ- 
ations he couldn't have done a shrewder thing 
to defeat the devil than to make this dinner 
for Christ. If any of you who have recently 
become Christians have old associates that 
would tempt you away from Jesus, you may 
learn a lesson from Matthew. It is never safe 
to go to their feasts of worldliness, but it is all 
right to bring them to the church to your 
feast with Jesus. I am sure that dinner was 
a great success. It is probable that many 
years afterwards, when the men that were 
young then — as most of them were, no doubt, 
for both Matthew and Jesus were young — 
came to be old, they talked about that dinner 
as one of the greatest events in their lives. 

The charm of Christ's personal conversation 
must have been marvelous. Men lost their 
devils and their diseases and turned away 
from their sins as they talked with Jesus. 
There was a fragrance about his life that was 
indescribably sweet ; and the best thing about 
it all is that he is coming to some of you now, 
and saying to you in your inmost conscience, 
"Follow me." If you will only answer that 



JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 129 

call as Matthew did, and rise up and follow 
him, he will come into your heart, and into 
your home, and fill them with sweetness and 
blessing. 

One of the most interesting curiosities in 
Germany is the rose-tree at Hildesheim, which 
is more than a thousand years old. Its exis- 
tence can be traced back to the time of Char- 
lemagne, and it is a fact that it was mentioned 
as a curiosity in old chronicles of the ninth 
century. It twines around a large part of the 
ancient Cathedral of Hildesheim near Bruns- 
wick, and with its countless blossoms presents 
in the season an entrancing spectacle. This 
venerable witness from bygone ages has been 
attacked by some insidious insect that threat- 
ens it with destruction. The Hildesheimers, 
to whom the roses are a sacred heirloom, have 
summoned the best authorities in arboricul- 
ture to their aid, but the fate of their tree fills 
them with anxiety. There is a rose-tree older 
than that, and ten thousand times more won- 
derful and beautiful. It is the Rose of Sharon, 
which has sent its roots under the sea into 
every land, and is sending forth its blossoms 
to gladden the hearts of all peoples. It has 
been often attacked by secret foes, but was 
never so fruitful as now. Its fragrance makes 



130 JESUS AT MATTHEW'S DINNER. 



many a home represented here glad with re- 
joicing. No heart here is so barren, so hke a 
desert, that the Rose of Sharon will not grow 
in it if planted there with penitence and faith. 

There is something infinitely hopeful and 
precious for us in Christ's response to the 
scribes and Pharisees when they criticised 
him for eating with publicans and sinners. 
He told them frankly that he was a physician, 
and, as such, naturally ministered to the sick. 
His mission to the world is to save sinners, 
and the fact that you need him, and need him 
very badly, is the surest guarantee that he 
will accept you — just as a physician will go 
quickest to the man who is nearest to death. 
Suppose two men come to the doctor, and one 
says, My boy has only cut his finger, and is 
not very badly off, and doesn't need you very 
much"; but the other says, ^^My boy has a 
dangerous wound, and we fear his life-blood is 
ebbing away, and he may not live till we 
reach him." The doctor will go with the 
latter messenger and let the other wait. So 
when you tell me you are a poor sinner, past 
all help in your own strength, I tell you that 
Christ waits with greatest tenderness and 
skill to come to you the moment you invite 
him with all your heart. 

" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are 



JESUS AT MATTHEWS DINNEB. 131 

heavy laden," are the words of Jesus. Mr. 
JVIoody recently said that he had been racking 
his brain trying to find out how to explain to 
people that word " Come." But he had made 
up his mind that the best definition of 
" Come " is just " Come." We were all taught 
to come before we could speak or remember. 

A woman once came to him and said : Mr. 
Moody, I would like to become a Christian ; but 
I'm so hard-hearted." 

He replied : My good woman, did the 
Master say : ' You soft-hearted people, come ' ? 
Nothing of the kind. He said: 'Come unto 
me' — all black hearts, vile hearts, corrupt 
hearts, deceitful hearts — ' all.' If your heart 
is hard, who will soften it ? You can't. The 
harder the heart the more need of coming. 
Isn't that so? The harder, the viler, the 
more deceitful the heart, the more need there 
is for the Saviour ; so come along and get 
rest. If you can't come as a saint, come as 
a sinner ; if you can't run, walk ; if you can't 
walk, creep to him ; but come." 

I am sure some of you ought to do that. 
Christ is saying to you as he did to Matthew, 
''Follow me"; happy, indeed, will it be for 
you if, looking back after years have passed 
^^^^7) ^1'^ able to say with him, " I rose 
immediately, and left all, and followed him." ^ 



THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS 



Son, be of good cheer ^ thy sins be forgiven thee." — 
Matt. ix. 2. 

"But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be 
of good cheer ^ it is 1 5 be not afraid." — Matt xiv. 27. 

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of 
good cheer 5 I have overcome the world." — John xvi. 33. 

Some years ago I read a book entitled "In 
the Cheering Up Business." That is the busi- 
ness of Christianity in this world. No one 
ever put into three years of life so much good 
cheer as did Jesus during those three years of 
his earthly ministry when he " went about do- 
ing good " among the hills and valleys of Pal- 
estine. The world is full of lonely, burdened, 
homesick hearts that need more than anything 
else a word of good cheer. Christianity could 
never fulfill its claim of being the gospel for 
the whole world if it did not have in it this 

132 



THE THBEE GOOD CHEEBS OF JESUS. 133 

dominant element of good cheer. The Chris- 
tian religion is one that wipes away tears, that 
inspires hope, and nerves its disciples with 
courage. To me there is something very sig- 
nificant in the three occasions in the story of 
the life of Jesus in which he used this happy 
phrase, " Be of good cheer." 

The first of these is the good cheer of for- 
giveness. A sick man had been brought to 
Christ by four friends who carried him there 
by main strength. From the conversation con- 
nected with his healing it would seem quite 
probable that the man's sickness was directly 
caused by his sins. There would be nothing 
uncommon about that, because sin is very 
often the cause of disease. There are doubt- 
less those who hear me who are suffering, 
even now, physical pain and inconvenience 
caused by sins long since repented. As a tur- 
bulent, overswoUen stream pours its muddy 
waters out into the lowlands in flood-time, 
and leaves many a swamp and slough to grow 
stagnant and be a breeding-place for reptiles 
long after the soiled torrent has buried itself 
in the sea; so many a time a man has the 
aching body, and the shattered nerve, and 
the deadly thirst of appetite which is an echo 
of a sin long ago committed. But J esus Christ 



134 THE THBEE GOOD CHEEBS OF JESUS. 

both, healed the man and forgave him his sins. 
Probably he had been sick a long time and 
had grown discom^aged about himself ; no 
doubt the feeling that his affliction had been 
brought upon himself by his own sins had 
made keener his sense of hopelessness and 
despair. Nobody could ever read human na- 
ture like Christ, and he saw the deep sorrow 
of the man and had pity on him, and with an 
infinite hopefulness in look and tone that went 
like a flash from a galvanic battery to the very 
core of the man's being, he said : " Son, be of 
good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee." 

Notice how tender and generous and great- 
hearted is the forgiveness of Christ. Paul 
says in the twelfth chapter of Romans that 
we should always show mercy "with cheer- 
fulness," and in doing so we only follow the 
example of Jesus. Study any one of the 
instances where Christ forgave sins, and I 
am sure the cheerfulness and hopefulness in 
which he performed the deed will impress you 
more than anything else. Take the case of 
the poor woman who had been taken in adul- 
tery. Christ does not berate her and send her 
away feeling that she was the offscouring of 
the earth, and that it made little difference 
whether she were good or bad ; but he opened 



THE TBJREE GOOD CHEEBS OF JESUS. 135 

a sweet and liappy and hopeful future to her 
as he said, " Neither do I condemn thee : go, 
and sin no more." Take the case of the other 
woman, who came to the house of Simon, and 
in her penitence and love broke the alabaster 
box of ointment above his head, and washed 
his feet with her tears. Christ not only for- 
gave her sins with gentleness, but what a 
world of good cheer he opened up to her 
thought when he declared that the story of 
her kindness and her ministry to him should 
be remembered and told to the end of the 
world. And the poor demon-possessed man 
who was found in the tombs of Gladara — 
when Christ met him and cast out the devils 
that had been his tormentors, he wanted to go 
with the Lord, but Jesus said : Gro home and 
tell how great things the Lord hath done for 
thee." Poor fellow ! he had been such a victim 
of his sin that he had forgotten that he had a 
home ; but the good cheer of Christ's outlook for 
him made its sweetness a glorious reality once 
again. 

Christ has not lost his cheerfulness in deal- 
ing with sinners. Sin discourages always. 
Sin makes a man believe that he is too bad 
to be saved ; that it is too late to mend ; that 
whatever it may be to others, the Christian 



136 THE THBEE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS, 

life is impossible to him. But Jesus is ready 
to say to you, if you will only turn to him in 
faith, " Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be 
forgiven thee.'' 

The second good cheer is connected with 
trouble and danger. It was the night when 
the disciples were out on the lake in the 
storm. They did not know that Jesus was 
anywhere near, but he was watching close at 
hand, and in the hour of their danger he 
appeared for their relief, calling out to them, 
" Be of good cheer ; it is I ; be not afraid." 

Christ has not deserted his world, but is 
still watching over his disciples, ready to help 
when they need and save them from ship- 
wreck. There is an organization in New 
York city called the " Don't Worry Society," 
but our Lord intends the Christian church 
to be that society in every community. If we 
trust Christ absolutely we must, in the very 
nature of things, be saved from worry. In 
the darkest storm we know that he is not far 
off, and will not desert us or allow us to sink. 
Our greatest blunder and sin is to suppose 
that we can be saved from dark hours by 
mere circumstances, or by the ministrations 
which money or any earthly power or influ- 
ence can give us. It is the great things, the 



THE THEEE GOOD CHEEES OF JESUS, 137 



spiritual realities tliat center in Christ, whicli 
alone can give us the support and good cheer 
that we need in the great emergencies and 
storms of life. As Dr. Ames has well said, 
at such a time trust gives strength. "When a 
man really believes that invisible and gra- 
cious powers attend his life, no burden is too 
heavy for him to carry. Then it is that hoj^e 
gives strength. We turn on our trouble and 
say: "I shall soon leave all this behind. I 
shall outlive my trial ; and, in time, I shall 
even forget it." When a man attacks his 
trouble like that, courage springs anew: the 
beggar's pack of sad memories and weakening 
fears drops off, and he takes up the real 
burden with a song. In such hours love gives 
strength. We can do for others many things 
which we cannot do for ourselves, and in- 
spired by love we forget to be tired. Christ 
brings all these forces with him when he hails 
our hearts in time of storm. The conscious- 
ness of his presence assures us of the genuine- 
ness and integrity of our own inner self. We 
are always strong when we know we are right. 
As Tennyson makes Sir Galahad say : 

" My strength is as the strength of ten, 
Because my heart is pure." 



138 THE THREE GOOD CHEEES OF JESUS. 

There is no voice so full of good cheer as 
that of Christ if we have once given onr 
heart's affection to him. It is no longer the 
voice of a great teacher, or a philosopher, or 
some historic character ; but the voice of our 
Saviour, with a music in it full of heavenly 
love, which can touch the fountain of thanks- 
giving and happy tears quicker than any 
other voice. The message of the voice de- 
pends upon its effects on the soul of the man 
to whom it comes. One will hear a strain of 
music and be entirely indifferent, while an- 
other is roused to the highest enthusiasm by 
the same sound. John Burroughs, the natu- 
ralist, relates that some years ago a friend in 
England sent him a score of skylarks in a 
cage. He gave them their liberty in a field 
near where he lived. They drifted away, and 
he never heard or saw them again. But one 
Sunday a Scotchman from a neighboring city 
called upon him, and declared with visible 
excitement that on his way along the road he 
had heard a skylark. He was not dreaming ; 
he knew it was a skylark, though he had not 
heard one since he had left the banks of the 
"bonnie Doon'' a quarter of a century or 
more before. The song had meant infinitely 
more to the old Scotchman than it could have 



THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 139 

meant to Mr. Burroughs. Many years ago 
some skylarks were liberated on Long Island, 
and they became established there and may 
now occasionally be heard in certain local- 
ities. One summer day a lover of birds made 
a journey out from New York city to observe 
them. A lark was soaring and singing in the 
sky above him. An Irishman came along and 
suddenly stopped as if transfixed to the spot. A 
look of mingled delight and incredulity came 
into his face. Was he indeed hearing the bird of 
his youth ? He took off his hat, turned his 
face skyward, and with eyes streaming with 
tears stood a long time regarding the bird. 
" Ah," thought the ornithologist, " if I could 
only hear that song with his ears ! " To the 
scientific man it was only one bird-song out 
of scores of others with which he critically 
compared it ; but to the other man it was like 
a message from heaven. It brought back his 
youth and all those long-gone days on his 
native hills. So a man who has never given 
his heart to Christ and known him as his 
Saviour and personal Friend may read the 
promises of Jesus in a cold-blooded, philo- 
sophical spirit; but to the sincere Christian, 
to whom Christ is the nearest and dearest 
friend, these " good cheers " spoken in times 



140 THE THBEE GOOD CHEEBS OF JESUS. 

of discouragement and despair come as a 
message from heaven itself. 

When Nansen went into the frozen arctic 
sea he took with him, among other things, a 
phonograph. Into this his wife had sung her 
sweetest songs, and the prattling voice of his 
little babe had nttered its childish tones. In 
the loneliness of the arctic midnight he could 
again listen to the familiar tones of those who 
were dearest to him. In the most discourag- 
ing hour he had the good cheer of loving 
voices to beckon him onward to success. 
These stories of the life of Jesus are a phono- 
graph into which Christ has spoken. When 
our boat is rocked by the waves and the 
night grows dark, if we will listen we can 
hear Christ saying to us, as to the frightened 
disciples long ago, "Be of good cheer; it is 
I ; be not afraid." 

The last good cheer Jesus uttered was in 
one of the closing conversations with his dis- 
ciples, when they were very lonely and sad. 
The world seemed so large and they were so 
small; it was so strong and they were so 
weak. But Christ said to them : " In the 
world ye shall have tribulation: but be of 
good cheer ; I have overcome the world." He 
assures them of his own triumph over the 



THE THREE GOOD CHEERS OF JESUS. 141 

world, and that in the same faith and spirit 
they, too, shall conquer. Christ came and 
lived in the midst of this world as a working- 
man, as an earnest reformer, as a brotherly 
helper, throwing himself into the thick of 
the fight, never dodging contact with any- 
body because of his poverty or sickness or 
sinfulness, and yet came off conqueror over 
the world. The world with all its wickedness 
could not soil his purity, or break down his 
courage. Let no man hesitate to become a 
Christian for fear that the world will slay 
him, for in Christ's strength the weakest may 
conquer. Did you never see an opal that 
seemed lusterless, without life or special 
beauty? But shut your hand about it and 
let it lie for a moment in your warm palm ; 
it is all changed ; there is not even a needle's 
point of its surface that does not glow with 
the beauty and splendor of the rainbow. The 
reason is that the opal is a sympathetic jewel 
and needs contact with the human hand to 
bring out its richest beauty; so you need, in 
order to bring out the nobility and strength 
of your character, and the beauty and grace of 
soul which are possible to you, to come into 
close touch and fellowship with Jesus Christ. 
Only in that magnetic atmosphere can you 



142 THE THBEE GOOD CHEEBS OF JESUS. 

come to the manhood or the womanhood which 
Grod sees is possible for you. A little over 
a year ago, in New York city, I was with an 
old Sandy Hook pilot, a great, weather-beaten, 
bronzed man of the sea, the hero of a hundred 
storms, when by the grace of Grod he emerged 
from darkness to light and was happily con- 
verted to Christ. I saw him every day for 
a few days afterwards, and then on a Friday 
night he came to me and said : It's my turn 
to go out to-morrow to the sea to meet a ship 
coming in, but I never went with so light a 
heart. I've been going out past Sandy Hook 
for nearly fifty years, but to-morrow will be 
the first time that the Great Pilot has gone 
with me, holding the wheel of my heart " ; 
and the tears of joy ran down the old man's 
weather-beaten face as he said, " It will be the 
happiest going to sea I have ever known." 

I bring you the "good cheer" of the Sa- 
viour. Wherever you may be — in sin, or 
sorrow, or weakness; or if, indeed, they all 
gather about you with lowering clouds — I 
bring you this trinity of hopeful messages, 
with the Saviour's love, and beg that you 
make of them a threefold cable to draw you 
out of the darkness, and the doubt, up to the 
solid rock of perfect confidence in Christ. 



CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 



The spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he 
was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; 
and was with the wild beasts." — Marh i. 12, 13. 

The great work of the world which has 
tended to cure the savagery of mankind, and 
Hft the race upward, has been done by Spirit- 
driven souls — men like John the Baptist, who, 
whether in the desert or in the palace of 
Herod, preached the gospel; men who, like 
Philip, turn from the city where they are pop- 
ular, their name on every lip, and go unhesi- 
tatingly to strange fields and climb into any 
passing chariot toward which the Spirit drives 
them ; men like J ohn Howard, who, forsaking 
home and ease and luxury, went from land to 
land, from prison to prison, into dungeon cell 
and fever-fetid hole, driven of the Spirit to 
find out the worst of man's inhumanity in 
order to make protest for the weak and f or- 

143 



144 C HEIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS, 

gotten ; women like Dorothea Dix, who took 
up the cause of the insane when there was not 
a humane asylum for that afflicted class on 
the earth, and became a wanderer on the face 
of the globe in their behalf, driven of the 
Spirit to agitation until humanity should pro- 
vide better things for the unfortunate; wo- 
men like Florence Nightingale, whom the 
Spirit drove from England to the Crimea to 
care for the sick and wounded soldiers; wo- 
men like Clara Barton, driven of the Spirit 
into Armenia when the terror of the Turk kept 
back all others, that she might carry food and 
comfort to the outraged and helpless Chris- 
tians, and later to Cuba, going from hut to 
hut as the messenger of mercy and of Christ. 
Oh, for sensitive hearts — sensitive enough to 
be Spirit-driven to the work which lies all 
about us waiting for willing and skillful 
hands ! 

But the theme to which I wish specially to 
call your attention is suggested in the strange 
statement that Christ was "with the wild 
beasts." I confess to you I do not know what 
it means. The whole statement is full of 
mystery, and one man's guess is as good as 
another's. Just what is meant to be taught I 
cannot say, and yet this weird declaration 



CHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 145 



necessarily gives added emphasis to the great 
fact of Christ's perfecting himself through 
suffering to be the Captain of our salvation. 
Just how much Christ suffered of loneliness 
and conflict in those dark days in the wilder- 
ness with the wild beasts we do not know; 
but we know all that is necessary for us to 
know about it, and the knowledge is fraught 
with encouragement — that however terrible 
was that lonely conflict with Satan and the 
wild beasts, Christ was more than a match for 
them all and came oft' victorious. 

This theme, it seems to me, is very simple 
and plain and full of teaching — Christ is in 
this world to destroy all that is vicious and 
wicked: indeed, to destroy the works of the 
devil. 

The wild beast of war that stalks abroad 
to-day and roars like a lion seeking its prey, 
Christ shall yet slay. There shall come a 
time when ravenous war will cease to threaten, 
when men shall beat their swords into plow- 
shares and their spears into pruning-hooks. 
How the old world will blossom then! It 
makes one's heart ache in Germany, and 
other countries abroad, to see in many fields 
the harvesting all done by women and chil- 
dren; and when you ask the reason why, 



116 CHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 

they tell you the men are in the army, and 
that, too, in time of peace. Ah! war is a 
bloody beast ; let it die. 

The brutal prize-fight and the brutalizing, 
soul-destroying liquor saloon and gambling 
hell shall go down and be slain like wild 
beasts as Christ advances into dominion. 
God give us the faith of our holy religion to 
dare to believe that if a thing is sinful and 
wicked and man-killing it must perish out of 
the world which Christ ransomed ! The awful 
folly of our land and our time is that we com- 
promise with these giant sins and license wild 
beasts to raven. It costs the State of Mon- 
tana nearly half a million dollars a year in 
bounties for their destruction to keep the 
w^olves from increasing in numbers. Now if 
that State should license a farmer in every 
community to breed wolves to add to the 
number which prey upon its flocks of sheep 
and herds of cattle, it would only be guilty of 
the same sort of folly of which the State of 
Ohio, as well as Montana, is guilty in licensing 
men in every community to sell intoxicants 
that prey like wild beasts upon the homes of 
the people. 

A friend of mine went into the Bowery Mis- 
sion in New York city one evening, and had 



CHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS, 147 



his attention drawn to a man near by who 
was leaning forward to catch every word of 
what was said. A refined, intelligent, gentle- 
manly face was concealed behind a patch of 
mud and clots of blood. His clothes were 
torn and covered with dirt from the gutter. 
He did not accept the invitation to remain at 
the close of the service, but was hastening 
toward the door when my friend took him by 
the arm and pulled him back. He said to the 
stranger, " My friend, you are in trouble, and I 
came here to-night hoping I might be helpful 
to some man who is in trouble.'' Startled at 
being held, the man wheeled about and faced 
the one who had spoken to him. Two bruises 
were on his head, and the blood from a cut on 
his chin was dripping down upon what was 
otherwise a clean shirt and collar. Yes,^' said 
he, " I am in great trouble, I assure you. This 
morning I left the hospital and I am still very 
weak. I have had but three drinks, and I 
have fifteen cents left to get some more, and 
then Grod only knows what will happen." But 
the Christian man was not to be put off. He 
took him to a wash-basin, and saw the dirt 
and blood removed from as refined a face as 
he had ever seen. The promise of coffee and 
food in the restaurant below, with a clean bed 



148 GHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 

above, touched the man's heart and brought 
out his story. He was a college graduate, 
a member of a well-known family, and had 
been a professional man of distinction. He 
had gone from honor and influence down to 
the gutter because he had been caught and 
thrown by the wild beasts that were licensed 
to ravage in his city. Grod help us to join 
with Christ in fighting these wild beasts, till 
they are overthrown ! 

The Christian church and the liquor saloons 
in these cities live altogether too peaceably. 
I saw the other day that through some strange 
freak a saloon-keeper had put up in his 
saloon window one of the announcements of a 
lecture to be given by me in a neighboring 
church. Perhaps he did it as a joke, but it 
stirred me to the bottom of my heart, and I 
wondered if I had been doing my whole duty 
in fighting the liquor saloons of this city. 
God knows I do not desire to be any more 
popular with a liquor-seller in this town than 
Jesus Christ would be if he were the pastor of 
this church. There can be no peace between 
the church and these vile institutions that 
does not mean dishonor to the church. When- 
ever the Christian church is doing its duty 
the saloon will hate and abuse and slander it, 



CHEIST WITH TKE WILD BEASTS, 149 



and do everything that it can against it. Did 
yon ever go throngh the wild-beast section of 
a zoological garden as the hour for feeding 
the animals drew near, and hear the lion 
roar, the wolf howl, the hyena gnash his teeth, 
and the serpent hiss ? So whenever political 
party or church or minister really starves the 
wild beasts of wickedness, you hear wicked 
men and cowardly dupes roar and snarl and 
hiss. We ought to rejoice when we hear that, 
for it means that we are on Christian ground 
and are loyal to our Lord. If we are faithful 
to him, victory will come in his own good 
time. 

Let us bring our message closer home, and 
reflect that every heart that has not surren- 
dered itself to the will of Christ is a cage of 
wild beasts. Shakespeare makes one of his 
characters say of another: "I think he be 
transformed into a beast; for I can nowhere 
find him like a man." Another exclaims : 
" 0 tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide ! " 
And still another bitterly says of himself that 
he is a "hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in 
greediness, dog in madness," and a "lion in 
prey." Christ called Herod an "old fox." 
Each of us has in our own nature the factors 
of our ruin ; but Christ does not tremble be- 



150 CHBI8T WITH THE WILD BEASTS, 

fore the wild beasts of the human heart : he 
has met and vanquished them in many a soul. 

If we could look into each other's hearts 
to-night, we would be astonished to see how 
necessary it is that Christ should deal with 
these wild beasts. Some of you have that 
same tiger thirst for strong drink about 
which I have already spoken in a general 
way. How like a tiger it is ! You have often 
seen the phrase " a man-eating tiger." It 
arises from the fact that when a tiger has 
once tasted human blood he is never satisfied 
with any other food. He will prey on other 
things to keep from starving, but he lurks 
about the villages and watches the lonely 
paths where men straggle, that he may slake 
his thirst again on human blood. The thirst 
for strong drink is like that. A man who has 
that thirst in him, no matter how he came by 
it, is no match for it in his own strength. 
One of the saddest funerals I ever attended 
was that of a young man to whose funeral I 
was called just before coming to this church. 
He was a son in one of the best homes in my 
congregation, a college man and a splendidly 
educated physician. He had been sent to 
Germany to finish his professional studies. 
He was a bright, brainy fellow, who might 



CHEIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 131 



have stood at the very head of his profession. 
But he toyed with the wine-cni3 and the beer- 
glass until the tiger-like thirst was on his 
track. His father picked him np out of the 
wreckage three or four times, and would start 
him in again in a new city, where he always 
won immediate success ; but it was only tem- 
porary, for there was a man-eating tiger in 
his own breast. Finally, when he ought to 
have been in his prime, he came home to die, 
a despairing, hopeless wreck. 

While no man can fight that wild beast 
successfully in his own strength, Christ is 
more than a match for it. There are men in 
this congregation who were once torn and 
scarred by this awful foe. They sought to 
contend against it in their own strength and 
failed, but when they came to Christ, and in- 
voked his aid, they found one strong and 
mighty to dehver. To-night they are living 
sober and happy lives because Christ is bring- 
ing them off more than conqueror. 

Others there are who are ravaged by the 
lion of lust. How many it has slain ! In 
his godly youth, while yet the atmosphere of 
his pure home was about him, and ere he had 
fallen into sin, Samson met a young lion and 
rent it in twain as though it had been a kid ; 



152 CHRIST With the wild b^jasts. 

but there came a day when Samson, fallen 
away from his prayerful and pure life, was 
slain by the lion of lust. This Hon ravages 
in these cities, and many go down before 
him. Beware of this temptation, as you 
would shun the path where a vicious, hun- 
gry lion lay in ambush. Beware of those 
thoughts, and associates, and books, and pa- 
pers, that inflame the imagination with false 
pictures of sinful pleasure, and gloss sin over 
until your innocent youth and your pure home 
seem dull and commonplace. Many a time a 
youth dallies with forbidden pleasures, think- 
ing only to toy with them, and not to fall into 
open sin. That is only a delusion of the devil. 
Tens of thousands have yielded to that insidi- 
ous temptation and have awakened afterwards 
to the awful fact that the slime of hell itself 
had besmirched their souls. Many a youth 
as innocent and pure as a child has uncon- 
sciously been led down the winding stairway 
until the moral nature became leprous and de- 
praved. But Jesus Christ is more than a match 
even for the lion of lust. He alone has power 
to transform the heart, to cleanse the secret 
chambers of the imagination, to fill the tem- 
ple of the soul with pure thoughts, and 
strengthen you for every good purpose. 



CHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 153 

Then there is that woK-like temper which 
is likely to flare out at any time nntil you are 
torn in shame and disgrace. Perhaps there 
is no sin that men excuse in themselves so 
easily as the sin of uncontrolled anger. A 
man congratulates himself that he is a good 
man — only "I am hot-tempered." Many a mur- 
derer has been that kind of a good man. Xo 
man is safe for a moment who does not seek 
from Christ the divine i30wer to aid in the 
control of his own spirit. Christ can tame 
the wolf-like temper and domesticate it, and 
train it to do the bidding of the will, so that 
it will no longer be a wolf to ravage but a 
watch-dog to stand sentinel. 

Then there is the hyena of greed. This 
snarling beast often drives out all others, and 
so keeps the whole kennel to itself that a 
man congratulates himself that he is better 
than others, and can hardly be counted a sin- 
ner at all, because he has no temptation to 
drink, or to lust, or vicious anger. But don't 
congratulate yourself, for the hyena of selfish- 
ness and greed is enough to destroy any soul. 
It slew Ananias, it made a suicide of Judas, 
and it -^^^11 just as surely strangle you unless 
by the aid of Jesus Christ you strangle it. 

In other hearts there is heard the hissing 



154 CHRIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS. 

serpent of falsehood. UntrutM ulness honey- 
combs a character and eats out all its strength. 
One of the most tragic things about politics 
and business and social circles to-day, as per- 
haps it has been in every day, is the prev- 
alence of insincerity and untruthfulness. A 
man deceives and is untrue in politics, and 
yet imagines that somehow he is an honor- 
able man. A business man will sometimes 
admit that he is not straightforward and 
square in business transactions, and yet is 
deluded into thinking that he is an honest 
man and a gentleman in spite of it. A min- 
ister urging upon a man not long since the 
necessity of his conversion, received this an- 
swer: "It is true that I sometimes shark a 
man in a trade, but Pm all right in my heart." 
How utterly self -deceived the man was! Per- 
haps some of you are being deceived the same 
way. Your nature is sympathetic, and you 
mistake pity for piety. Because you can be 
touched by a tender story you think yourself 
a Christian, in spite of the fact that your 
honesty in any place where you can deceive is 
not to be counted on. You will take advan- 
tage of a man in dealing with him, and yet 
you comfort yourself that your intentions are 
pure. You ought to put to yourself the rough 



GHBIST WITH THE WILD BEASTS, 155 



and rugged, but true, imagery of Spurgeon 
when he said that ^' a man might as well walk 
into a horse-pond and hope to keep dry, as to 
turn his face toward hell and hope to get to 
heaven." That untruthfulness and insincerity 
will poison your whole life and banish you 
from the presence of God forever unless the 
serpent of falsehood is killed and your nature 
brought to health and genuineness. Christ is 
able to do that for you. He is more than a 
match for the hissing serpent of insincerity. 
In him you may find your soul's lost manhood. 

Shall we not have an honest heart-searching 
here and now ? Nothing is more foolish than 
self-deception. No man who covers his sins 
shall prosper. Accept the offer of Christ to 
come now into your heart and destroy every 
wild beast and make your soul the temple of 
the Holy Spirit. 



CHRIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 



^' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " — Acts ix. 6. 
Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." — John ii. 5, 

Christ is the soul's rightful master. The 
way of peace is the path of surrender to the 
will of Christ. Many are like Paul, stubborn 
and seK-willed, and come to the day of sur- 
render through a hard path ; and many others 
there are who, unlike Paul, refuse to yield 
in the face of light as bright and convincing 
as that which shone upon him on the way to 
Damascus. They know their duty, they see 
that Christ is Loi^d, but taking the bits be- 
tween their teeth, like some reckless, runaway 
steed, they dash recklessly on to eternal dis- 
aster. Happy is the soul that, seeing the 
danger, heeds it ! 

There is in southern France the old town 
of Avignon, where there is a strange ruin of 
a bridge which was built in the twelfth cen- 

156 



CHBIST THE SOUL'S MA ST EE. 157 



tury, but has long since been abandoned. The 
old bridge spans the River Rhone, which is 
very wide at Avignon. That is, it seems to 
span it, but does not quite do so. Only four 
arches remain to-day of the nineteen that 
once existed, fifteen of them having been 
swept away by a terrible flood. These four 
arches only take the road from the eastern 
bank to about a quarter of the breadth of the 
river, and there leave it. At one time there 
was a little chapel in the middle of the bridge 
which was said to contain the relics of one 
of the saints, and the wayfarer was asked to 
halt to get the blessing of this saint; but 
about a hundred years ago that part of the 
bridge was swept away, and there is a legend 
that the devil came in place of the saint to 
lure his victims to death. In the disguise of 
a benevolent monk he would join himself as 
a guide to strangers arriving in the town, and 
at night would take them to this broken 
bridge in order to lead them to the other side 
of the river, going before them in the darkness 
to show them the way. At the end of the 
bridge he would be seen still advancing, while 
the trusting strangers, following on, would 
step over the broken edge and plunge with a 
wild cry into the dark river below. In this 



158 CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTEB, 

manner lie led many victims to destruction, 
and the broken bridge of Avignon got an evil 
name from the number of such tragic acci- 
dents that happened on it, until at last the 
authorities made it altogether inaccessible to 
the public. 

The evil one has many broken bridges by 
which he lures the unwary to their destruc- 
tion. I have in my thought at this moment 
a young man who came to the city last autumn 
from a home where he had been the object of 
everything that love and abundant means 
could do to hedge about and carefully prepare 
him for a manly career. Coming into the 
midst of the temptations of the city, he was 
drawn into the association of fast young men 
and flattered by those who desired to profit 
by his self-indulgence. The path before him 
seemed very pleasant. He had never asso- 
ciated with young men of such brilliant parts 
and who seemed to him to be so thoroughly men 
of the world. Under the spell of their flattery 
his mother's path of total abstinence and 
church-going seemed very narrow and mean. 
That might be all well enough for women, but 
it was much more manly to have his glass of 
wine with the fellows, and his game of cards 
in one of the many semi-public gambling hells 



CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 159 

which the police wink at in this city. The 
road before him seemed solid. All the warn- 
ings of the Bible about the way of the trans- 
gressor being hard, and the dangers Im^king 
in paths of self-indulgence, seemed to him 
but idle tales. He threw himself into this 
seductive way with all his heart. What was 
the result? In three months' time he was a 
drunken, soiled, bankrupt, shamefaced wreck 
of a youth. His mother came and took him 
home, though her heart was broken. Surely 
Solomon was right when he said, " There is a 
way which seemeth right unto a man, but the 
end thereof are the ways of death." 

Do any congratulate themselves that, though 
they are not Christians, they are not tempted 
to the same kind of self-indulgence ? But the 
devil has many another path besides that of 
the appetites and the passions by which he 
lures souls to their ruin. Sometimes men are 
led away from Christ, and brought into dan- 
ger of losing their souls, through their own 
self-complacency. Many to-day are as proud 
of their self -righteousness as the Pharisee who 
thanked Grod that he was not like the poor 
publican. Yet he went down to his house 
condemned. It is obedience which Christ asks 
of us. He declares that if we love him we will 



160 CHEIST THE SOUL'S MASTEB. 

" keep his words " ; that is, we will obey him 
and seek to please him. 

Many when urged to be Christians seek to 
thrust aside the direct issue by pleading their 
morality and comparative goodness. A man 
will enumerate the many bad things he will 
not do, and urge the msnij good deeds which 
may be credited to his account ; yet all the 
time the one thing which Christ asks of him, 
and without which everything else is of no 
avail, he refuses to do. Christ asks for the 
heart, for the surrender of the will to him. 
Only obey him in that respect and everything 
else will follow as a matter of course ; but so 
long as we refuse that nothing else counts. 

Every earnest pastor is often pained by the 
failure of many people who come very near 
to the kingdom and yet fail to enter in and 
be saved. Very probably there are those to 
whom I am now speaking who are at the 
very doorway of salvation. You have never 
doubted that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of 
the world. You may have had doubts about 
many things that hang like fringes about 
Christianity, but the great central fact that 
Christ is the Saviour of the world, and that 
you should accept him as your Leader and 
your Lord, you do not doubt. Salvation 



CEBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 161 



would come to your house the very hour you 
put this dormant faith into action by obedi- 
ence to Christ. 

Dr. Henry C. Mabie relates that there once 
came to him, in an inquiry meeting, a bright 
young Grerman, in a very forlorn state reli- 
giously. He said : " Sir, I have become very 
skeptical. I have drifted in my religious 
thinking so far away that I am frightened.'' 

''That is a good sign," replied Dr. Mabie, 
"for when a man is alarmed at his own think- 
ing, there is some hope for him in the gospel. 
And now, what can I do for you ? " 

"Well, I thought you might give me some 
clue or other. I don't want to go any farther 
in the direction in which I have been going." 

"Well," said the doctor, "you need not tell 
me anything about what you don't believe. 
Will you be kind enough to tell me some one 
thing which, after all, you do believe I " 

The German thought a moment, and an- 
swered: "Well, I yet believe in G-od." 

"Do you? Do you really?" 

"Oh, yes; I believe in Grod. I will never 
give that up." 

"Very well; so far, so good. Now, how 
much do you believe in him?" 

" Why, I told you I believed in him." 



162 CHBIST THE SOUL'S MA STEM. 



" Do you believe in your God enough to act 
on your belief ? " 

" Why, a man ought to." 

"Certainly," said Dr. Mabie, "or he isn't 
candid. Now Jesus Christ assures us if any 
man will act on the amount of light he has, 
he shall have more. I am going to call on 
you here and now to act on your belief. I 
want you to do the very simplest thing I can 
think of in the way of acting out your belief 
here and now. I want you to speak to God." 

" What ! do you want me to pray ? I can't 
make a prayer." 

" Well, don't call it a prayer if that frightens 
you. I want you to talk to God in your own 
way, as you talk to me, and thus prove the 
reality of your faith in God. God does not 
ask you to make my prayer, or anybody 
else's. You couldn't do so if you tried. Do 
your own praying. Have your own notion of 
God. You cannot have mine, anyway. No 
two men require to have the same amount of 
light, or the same convictions concerning God; 
but every man is required to act upon the con- 
viction he does have ; to risk himself on the 
truth he does avow; to treat the measure of 
truth he clings to as if it were actual and not 
a pretence." 



CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER, 163 



" Well^" said he, with that explanation of 
it, I think I could begin." 

The two men knelt down, and the young man 
listened while the minister prayed. "Wlien he 
had ceased, after a short struggle, he broke 
forth himself, 0 my Grod ! " and he went on 
step by step, pouring out a very torrent of 
confession, until suddenly, springing to his 
feet, he exclaimed: ^^Oh, sir, I feel wonder- 
fully changed. Could you lend me a Bible? 
I want to read the Bible." 

The man was gloriously converted in that 
first act which he put forth on the faith he 
had. And this is not an uncommon occur- 
rence except in its details. Many souls are 
held back in a deadly lethargy when one act 
of self-surrender, or confession of Christ as 
the soul's master, would bring into their lives 
infinite joy. 

A minister was one day calling on a lady 
in his parish, when her husband came in. 
The husband was not a professor of Chris- 
tianity, and, on meeting his wife's pastor, he 
said: "Sir, we are very glad to see you in 
our home. My wife is a member of yom- 
church; I am not. Indeed, there are many 
things in your creed I could not accept. But, 
sir, I believe more than some people suppose." 



164 CHBIST THE SOUL'S MASTER. 



"What, for example, do you believe,^ said 
the interested pastor, more than people sup- 
pose ? " 

" Oh," was the reply, " I believe that Jesus 
Christ is the greatest teacher the world ever 
saw." 

" Do you believe that ? " said the minister. 
"I do." 

"Well, then," continued the preacher, "would 
you mind coming to our prayer-meeting, next 
Wednesday night, and sajang that much ? " 

" What ! " said he. " Think of me coming to 
a prayer-meeting and saying that ! Would you 
make me a hypocrite ? " 

"Didn't you speak as an honest man just 
now when you said you believed more than 
some supposed ? And where would be the 
hypocrisy in saj^ing in public what you have 
said to your wife and to me ? " 

" Well," said the man, " that is a new way of 
putting it ; I will think about it." 

He came to the next prayer-meeting, and 
when occasion was offered he arose and re- 
peated the conversation which the pastor had 
had with him, confessing to more faith than 
he supposed he had. And while he stood 
there talking his heart was melted, the hea- 
venly light shone in upon him, and he was 



CHBIST the sours MASTEE. 165 



converted ! He went out of that prayer- 
meeting the most surprised and happiest of 
men. 

There are many here now who would go 
away with untold happiness if they would 
only act on the faith which they have. I beg 
of you to use the light which Grod has given 
you. If as yet the light is not bright enough 
to show all the way to heaven, there is surely 
enough to show you the first step, which is to 
obey Jesus and confess before men that he is 
the Master and Lord of your soul. 



FOR LOVE'S SAKE. 



Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath 
given himself for us." — Eph, v. 2. 

One of the surest evidences of the superna- 
tural character of Christianity is the high 
demand which it makes upon us. The life 
which it sets for us is the noblest that has 
ever been conceived. He who is the one al- 
together lovely character in human history is 
set not only as our Ideal, but as our Model, 
after which we are to build our own lives. 
The Christian life is not one simply of duty 
harnessed down to service, however noble; 
but it is duty led by the silken leash of love, 
which changes burdens into wings and makes 
all service light. It seems strange to many 
people who are not Christians to hear us talk 
about a life of sacrifice and a life of joy and 
gladness in the same breath. But it is all 
simple enough when the spirit of this life, as 

166 



FOE LOVE'S SAKE. 



167 



suggested in our text, is taken into consid- 
eration. The Christian life attempted in any 
other spirit is a mockery. It is the glow of 
the supernatural, the presence of the divine, 
the glorious self-surrender, the supreme pas- 
sion of love, which gives to the Christian life 
a charm and a beauty that the world can 
know nothing of. If one undertakes to live 
a Christian life simply as a formality, it is dry 
and hard and ugly. 

One of the old and magnificent ruined cas- 
tles in Ireland came to an end in a strange 
manner. It was the ancient seat of the Cas- 
tlereaghs, and was at one time one of the most 
princely residences in the Grreen Isle. Finally 
it fell into decay and was not inhabited. As 
usual under such circumstances, when the peas- 
antry wanted to repair a road, or build a chim- 
ney, or a pig-sty, or anything of that sort, they 
went for the stones to the ruined castle. One 
day Lord Londonderry paid a visit to his Irish 
property. When he saw the state the castle 
was in, and reflected on the fact that it was so 
closely identified with the history of his family, 
and even as a ruin was one of the glories of 
Ireland, he determined to put an end to the 
encroachments that had been made on it. He 
sent for his agent and gave orders to have the 



168 



FOB LOViE'S SAKE. 



castle enclosed with a wall six feet high and 
well coped, to keep out trespassers. That 
being done, he went his way, and did not 
return to Ireland for three or four years. 
"When he did return he was amazed to find 
that the old castle had completely disappeared, 
and in its place there was a huge wall en- 
closing nothing. He sent for his agent and 
demanded to know why his orders had not 
been carried out. The agent insisted that 
they had been. " But where is the castle ? 
asked the marquis. "The castle, is it? I 
built the wall with it, my lord ! Is it for me 
to be going miles for materials with the finest 
stones in all Ireland beside me ? " Lord Lon- 
donderry had his wall — but the castle, without 
which the wall meant nothing, had disappeared. 
Alas ! I fear that many of us are in danger in 
our church life of building our devotions into 
walls of formality that may be very strong, 
very orthodox, very rich in their display and 
mechanical equipment; and our thought and 
attention becoming so set upon the forms that 
we lose out of them the spirit of our Chris- 
tianity, the fervor of our devotion, the flaming 
fire of our zeal for God without which all our 
churches and church machinery have no sig- 
nificance and are as senseless as Lord Lon- 



FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 



169 



donderry's wall about a castle which had 
disappeared into the wall itself. 

It is good for ns to bring ourselves fre- 
quently into the presence of him who is our 
Model and our Inspiration. We are to give 
ourselves up to the life of love even as Christ 
loved us and gave himself in sacrifice for us. 
The world which approaches us through the 
senses is always so near and so noisy that it 
is sure to lower our standard of living unless 
we keep in constant touch with Christ. We 
need to have line upon line and precept upon 
precept to keep us alert and conscious of the 
high life to which we are called. 

This life of Christian love is very unworldly 
in many things. For instance, love never asks 
the question which is on everybody's lips in 
this commercial age — "Will it pay?" It is 
enough for love that it may serve its beloved. 
Love surrenders itself, thinking not of return. 
Love exults that it can give. Sometimes we 
see church life conducted on the worldly plan, 
and about every movement in pulpit and pew 
the interrogation point goes up, "Will it 
pay ? " — meaning, though it would not always 
be accepted in so many words, will it bring 
money into the church treasuries, or crowd 
the house with popular throngs, or attract 



170 



FOE LOVE'S SAKE. 



the rich and cultured; and not meaning, the 
one thing for which the church exists, and 
has a right to exist — the expression of loving 
devotion to the Christ whose name it bears by 
carrying the good news of his willingness and 
power to forgive sins to every listening soul. 
How different is the spirit of that love about 
which Christ talks to us ! The father who 
welcomed home the prodigal never asked, 
when taking him back in his rags, "Will it 
pay?" There was no talk about putting him 
down in the back kitchen to a supper with 
the servants off the fragments left from the 
household table. Nothing was said about half 
the family living squandered and a stranded 
youth thrown on his hands. No ; the father's 
love was speaking when he said : " Make ready 
the feast ; find the best robe ; bring love's 
most precious ring ; let all the house be 
merry. For my lost son is found again, and 
he whom I mourned as dead has come back 
alive.'' Wherever that spirit possesses the soul 
to-day, there is the victorious life; wherever 
it dominates in a church, speaking from the 
pulpit and echoing back from the pews, the 
angels rejoice over sinners who are attracted 
to enjoy its warmth. 
Love never asks, "Will the burden be 



FOE LOVE'S SAKE, 



111 



heavy?" Love is never looking for ligM 
things, easy things, to do. It always wants 
to carry the heaviest end of the load. 
Christ's yoke is easy to every one of us who 
have completely given ourselves up to his 
service, because his supreme love causes him 
ever to bear the heavy end of the yoke. If 
we live in his spirit, living with us will be 
very pleasant, and the world cannot help 
being made better and happier because we 
are in it. This spirit is illustrated on every 
side by those who have been transformed into 
the image of Christ through his love. 

When Alexander Mackay bade farewell to 
his native land, in company with other young 
men, to carry the news of the Saviour's love 
into Central Africa, he said to the missionary 
committee, "Is it at all likely that eight Eng- 
lishmen should start for Central Africa and all 
be alive six months after ? One of us at least — 
it may be I — will surely fall before that. But 
what I want to say is this : When the news 
comes, do not be cast down, but send some 
one else immediately to take the vacant place." 
That is the spirit which is capturing the world 
for Christ. If all of us who name his name 
lived ever in that spirit we could very shortly 
bring about the final victory of Christ. 



172 



FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 



Love never asks, Am I doing more than 
my share ? " Love never whines abont its 
work. Its joy is that it may go into the hard 
places where the need is gi^eatest. The shep- 
herd in Christ's story does not grumble at the 
darkness of the night, or the depth of the 
canon, or the folly of the lost sheep. It is one 
of his flock that is in danger of the wolf, and, 
leaving the ninety and nine in the fold, he 
seeks patiently until he finds it ; and when he 
finds the wanderer, he tenderly carries it on 
his shoulder to safety and rejoices over it. It 
is a thing to tell the other shepherds about ; a 
thing to sing over. Nothing can stand in the 
way of a Christian who attacks duties in that 
spirit. A poor Swiss boy, so sickly that he 
was confined to his bed for years, as he could 
do nothing else, read ever}^:hing that he 
could lay his hands on, and learned several 
languages. Being a Christian, his heart be- 
came captivated with the needs of the poor 
natives of Africa. He prayed for strength, 
and when it came he crossed the ocean and 
put himself under Bishop Taylor, in whom he 
found a kindred spirit. And so it came about 
that Heli Chatelain made his explorations into 
Africa and gave himself up to the mission of 
helping as best he could to bring the light of 



FOE LOVE'S SAKE. 



173 



Christ into the midst of that great darkness. 
He has jnst been writing home to some of the 
religious newspapers, recounting his experi- 
ences ; and as we read of the difficulties — not 
only in the country and the chmate, but, 
worse than forests and swamps and fevers, 
the horrible forms of heathenism and bar- 
barism — we wonder how any man can keep 
his courage and hope under such circum- 
stances. But instead of being cast down he 
says in his last letter : G-od is blessing us 
abundantly, so that I could sing all tlie time. 
He alone can reform this evil society. We 
realize our helplessness. G-od can and will use 
us.'' And then this brave man closes his letter 
by saying, with what impressed me as a touch 
of pathos : My candle is burnt out, it is late, 
and I must be up early, before day." As I 
thought how rapidly this man and others like 
him are burning themselves out in the Master's 
service, I thanked Grod that it was possible for 
us to be the candles of the Lord, and to be 
lighted at Heaven's &es with a passion so 
holy and so deathless. 

Love never asks, Who will get the credit 
for it?" It is glad it may do the service; 
willing to be only the vase covered by the 
flowers which it holds ; willing to be only the 



174 



t'OB LOVE'S SAKE. 



packing which wraps the Saviour's image; 
willing to be only the channel, hidden, it may 
be, through which may come his love, which 
is to ransom and redeem those who shall be 
jewels in his crown. If our love to Christ is 
supreme, it is not credit for ourselves which 
we desire, but credit for Christ. A man 
went to hear Spurgeon preach, and a friend 
asked him: "What do you think of him?" 
" Nothing," was the reply. Then, seeing the 
look of astonishment and sorrow on his friend's 
face, he said again : No, nothing." But his 
eyes filled with tears of joy as he added : " All 
I can think of is the preacher's Saviour!" 
Every one of us who carry the banner of 
Christ should be so given up in spirit to this 
great love for him and for his cause that our 
Christ shall have the credit for illuminating 
and transforming our lives. 

Love never faints by the way. A lady 
visiting on one of the fashionable streets in 
Chicago, last summer, was called to the door 
to meet a man who asked permission "to 
have a fit on her porch." The poor fellow felt 
the premonitions of his affliction, and, knowing 
it was bound to come, sought a convenient 
place for the inevitable performance. It would 
use up a good many porches, I fear, to furnish 



FOR LOVE S SAKE, 



175 



convenience for all the fainting Christians. 
But we do not need to have these times for 
fainting. " They that wait upon the Lord 
shall renew their strength ; they shall nionnt 
up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and 
not be weary ; and they shall walk, and not 
faint." 

If any hear me who are not Christians, I 
would not close without urging upon you the 
truth that this life of supreme sacrifice and 
self-surrender, which seems so unworldly and 
so ^contrary to the wisdom of the world, is, 
after all, the most joyous and the only safe 
and sure life. Dr. F. B. Meyer recently said 
that we need not be afraid to trust Grod utterly. 
As we go down the long corridor of life we 
shall find that he has preceded us and locked 
many doors which we would have been glad 
to enter; but we may be sui^e that beyond 
these there is one which he has left unlocked. 
When we open that door and enter we will 
find ourselves face to face with a bend of the 
river of opportunity, broader and deeper than 
anything we have dared to imagine in our 
sunniest dreams. We may fearlessly launch 
forward on it, for it will conduct us to the 
open sea. The launching out on a life of 
supreme devotion to Christ is an occasion of 



176 



FOB LOVE'S SAKE. 



heavenly joy and promise. When a vessel 
is launched by the Japanese, they do not 
" christen " it, as we do ; but, instead, they 
hang over the ship's prow a large pasteboard 
cage full of birds. Directly the ship is afloat, 
a man pulls a string, the cage opens, and the 
birds fly off and make the air alive with their 
songs and the whir of their wings. The idea 
is that the birds welcome the vessel as she be- 
gins her career as a thing of life. Grive your- 
self up to Christ with all your heart ; launch 
your soul on the ocean of his love, and all the 
birds of the Spirit shall sing in your ears 
songs of forgiveness and hope until every- 
thing that is good enough to be true will 
seem to be, as it is, possible for the future of 
your soul. 



SHAEING THE INHERITANCE WITH 
JESUS. 



Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." — Bom. 
viii. 17. 

Theke is no richer promise in the Bible 
than that set forth with differing phraseology 
in many passages assuring us that we may be 
adopted into the family of God and share in 
all the inheritance of Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
We have known this always, and the story has 
been so oft repeated to us that it may have 
lost the keenness of delight which it ought to 
give. Men take great pride in tracing their 
family relationships back to some royal per- 
sonage, or to some famous historic character ; 
but it is scarcely worth while when a far 
greater honor is assured to every one, however 
poor and humble he may be, who will accept 
the brotherhood of Jesus Christ. The most 
splendid character in the ages, the one per- 
fectly ideal character, on whose record for 

177 



178 SHARING THE INHEBITANCE 

heroism and goodness and power there is not 
a stain, offers to lift ns out of the mire and 
clay of sin, and set onr feet upon the solid 
rock of heirship with him, in an inheritance 
nobler than that which any man of wealth or 
any king in the world could bestow. 

This is the great central fact of Christianity. 
The chief characteristic of the Christian life is 
that we are to share the inheritance of J esus. 
To be a Christian is to be like J esus. We are 
to share his fate in all worlds. It is impossi- 
ble that we can go our own way in this world 
and share the inheritance with him in the 
next. If we are to have part in the heavenly 
mansions we must not shun his yoke of ser- 
vice or sorrow in this world. In the very 
verse from which we have taken our text, 
Paul continues — "if so be that we suffer with 
him, that we may be also glorified together.'' 
The servant is not greater than his lord, and 
we ought not to desire to be more popular or 
successful in business, or society, or church 
circles, than Jesus Christ would be were he 
here. We are joint-heirs with Christ. We 
must not evade our fellowship with him in 
sharing temporary discomforts or burdens, 
but, like him, must have our eyes on the goal 
at the end of the race. 



WITH JESUS. 



179 



There is a very striking illustration of the 
kind of spirit we ought to show as Christians 
in the single reference which is made in the 
New Testament to Onesiphorus. Paul, in his 
last letter to Timothy, burst forth into this 
exclamation of gratitude: "The Lord give 
mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus : for 
he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of 
my chain." Paul was a poor prisoner in 
Eome, with money gone, friends far away, 
and in great need of somebody to love and 
comfort him. Onesiphorus hunted him up, 
and, counting Paul's chain a badge of honor 
rather than of shame, loved him all the more 
when he saw this indication of Nero's cruelty. 
He was so true a Christian that he was willing 
to share the fate of every true friend of J esus. 
We want that spirit to-day — men and women 
who will stand by the right because it is right, 
whether it is popular or not. The church of 
Christ is not to be a poor time-server waiting 
on politicians and demagogues to lead the 
way toward public or private righteousness, 
but wherever the issue rises we are to stand 
by the plain and simple standard of our Lord, 
and if for the time being it is in the minority, 
never haul down our colors, but go with them 
if need be to our cross. There is an Easter 



180 SHABING THE INHEBITANCE 

for every such crucifixion. In sharing Christ's 
inheritance there may be times that are full 
of trial, like the forty days which Christ spent 
in the wilderness with the wild beasts ; but if 
we share the wilderness with Jesus we shall 
also share with him the Mount of Trans- 
figuration. It is better to go through the 
darkness with Christ, than to walk in the 
blazing noon without him. 

A novel method of treatment for a sick, 
child has been adopted with success by a 
druggist in an Eastern city. About nine years 
ago the wife of the druggist died, leaving a 
delicate baby boy to her husband's care. All 
his soul was wrapped up in the child, and he 
watched him tenderly and saw that the people 
with whom he placed him gave him the most 
careful attention. But in spite of their care 
the child dwindled and faded. He was afflicted 
with a nervous disease which developed into 
spinal trouble. When he was eight years old, 
the physicians who had been attending him 
almost broke the father's heart by telling him 
that there was no hope of saving his little 
son's life. But the father had been studying 
the disease himself, and he determined, as the 
physicians had given up the case, that he 
would treat him on a system of his own. His 



WITH JESUS. 



181 



theory was based on the benefit of complete 
seclusion and unvarying conditions. Under 
his store he had a large cellar hewn from the 
solid rock and perfectly dry. He partitioned 
off a square of about twenty feet of this area, 
laid a thick carpet, and furnished it with mini- 
ature furniture of the most beautiful and 
comfortable kind. No ray of sunlight was 
permitted to enter this underground room, 
but a cluster of electric lights in the ceiling 
gave uniform light night and day. Music- 
boxes made soft melody, and toys such as 
boys love were scattered about. Into this 
room the father brought his boy and made 
him understand that the luxurious nest was 
his own and that the remainder of the cellar 
was his playground. No one else was ever 
permitted to enter. The boy heard no voice 
but that of his father and saw no one else. 
At the beginning he was terribly thin; he 
could not dress, and could scarcely feed, him- 
self. In a few weeks a decided improve- 
ment was seen. The boy grew stronger and 
showed more intelligence. The absolute quiet 
and seclusion suited him and he gained cheer- 
fulness and courage. His father spent as 
much of his time as he could in the cellar 
with him, and slept there. As his strength 



182 SHABING THE INHEBITANCE 

increased gymnastic appliances were intro- 
duced, and one day the father brought him 
a set of carpenter's tools, which proved a 
great source of amusement. After twenty 
months of this secluded life, the boy is al- 
most robust, his nervousness has disappeared, 
and he can talk intelligently. The father pro- 
poses now to gradually introduce him to ordi- 
nary life and send him to a kindergarten 
school. It has been a strange method of 
cure, but it has been a wonderful success. 
Now if you were to hear that a father who 
was well-to-do and had a fine house had shut 
his son up in the cellar under his store for 
twenty months, and did not understand his mo- 
tive or know the circumstances, you would be 
very likely to pronounce him cruel. So Grod's 
dealings with us are often misunderstood. 
Many times in the wilderness of temptation 
we misunderstand Grod's motive, and men 
looking on may imagine that we are hypo- 
crites and unworthy of G-od's deliverance, or 
else that it is not true that Grod interferes in 
behalf of his children in times of calamity. 
We are very short-sighted when we reason in 
that way. Perhaps I speak to some at this 
moment who are in the cellar of trial and 
darkness. Do not take it for granted that 



WITH JESUS, 



183 



God is angry with yon because the darkness 
curtains you in. Grod may see that the one 
thing above all else that can strengthen you 
and build you up for time and eternity is 
the experience of darkness and trial. No 
sincere Christian ever has to go into the 
place of trial alone ; our Saviour will visit us 
there — nay, more ; he will abide with us there 
and comfort us in the darkest hour. 

No really great Christian work can be ac- 
complished except by one who has a keen 
sense of sharing the fate of Christ. The 
presence of the divine Christ lifts us up into 
a new atmosphere and strengthens us to do 
great deeds. Saul is only a common perse- 
cutor, hunting men down for opinion's sake, 
until a vision of the glorious Christ startles 
him out of himself and transforms him into 
the clear-eyedj broad-souled, brave Paul who 
forever after shares the inheritance of Jesus 
with all gladness. If he fights with beasts for 
the pleasure of a brutal populace, he glances 
at the scars left from the tiger's claw and calls 
them "the marks of the Lord Jesus." If he 
is a prisoner, he is not Nero's prisoner, but 
with tender pathos and comfort he writes 
himself down as "the prisoner of Jesus 
Christ." No wonder Paul is ready to say, " If 



184 SHAMING THE INHEEITANCE 

SO be that we suffer with him, that we may be 
also glorified together. For I reckon that the 
sufferings of this present time are not worthy 
to be compared with the glory which shall be 
revealed in us." 

If we share Christ's sufferings with com- 
plete devotion, we shall share his inheritance, 
also, in the joy and glory which reward his 
service both in this world and in the world 
to come. When Jesus was going away he 
comforted his disciples with the assurance 
that they should not only continue his work 
in the world, but should do greater works 
than he had done, by the aid of the Holy 
Spirit whom he would send unto them. 
What we need above all else is a supreme 
consecration of ourselves, with everything 
that we have and are, to the service of Christ, 
that we may share also in that divine power 
which is the inheritance of the wholly conse- 
crated lifeo There has been many another 
man like Mr. Moody, who preached many 
times without bringing about conversions 
before he made the supreme self-surrender 
to Christ which brought the enduement of 
power and transformed him into the marvel 
of spiritual energy and effectiveness he has 
been ever since. Tamil David, the wonderful 



WITH JESUS. 



185 



Hindoo evangelist, though yet a young man, 
has won to Christ tens of thousands of men 
and women in many lands. He preached for a 
long time, however, without this power. One 
day, after preaching, he met a Salvation Army 
captain. He was not an educated man, but 
he was practical. He was a man wise in 
spiritual things. He said: "David, my friend, 
come here. I see you have good material. I 
heard you preaching. You are strong, you 
have a good voice, but do you know there is 
one thing lacking ? " 

David said : " What is that ? " 

"You haven't the fire as yet; accept the 
fire.'' 

" What makes you say that ? Tell me." 

"My dear brother, unless you get the life 
more abundant, you may preach as much as 
you like, but you cannot win souls for Christ; 
you may preach and preach, but all will be in 
vain. You have all the materials; only one 
thing is lacking in you. As soon as you get 
the fire you will be a different man and souls 
will be converted." 

That poor Salvation Army captain led 
Tamil David tenderly to a complete conse- 
cration of himself, with all he had and was 
and hoped for, to be the servant of Christ — 



186 SHABING THE INHEBITANCE 

to simply share the fate of Jesus; and, sure 
enough, from that day David was a trans- 
formed man. He went into the streets and 
groves to preach, and every man that heard 
him felt that some marvelous power had 
fallen upon him. More than ten thousand 
people were converted within three months. 
People were filled with the Holy Ghost. The 
Hindoo priests crowded around and asked : 
"What is this?" David answered: "The 
same power as at Pentecost." Many priests 
fell down and cried for mercy. And during 
the last few months thousands of men and 
women in Chicago have been converted under 
the simple preaching of this consecrated man. 
He calls it " the abundant life." Whatever it 
is, it is what we want. I covet it for myself, 
and for you, more than any earthly good. It 
is possible for us to have it. God is not par- 
tial, to grant this abundant life only to Peter, 
and Moody, and Tamil David and their com- 
peers. Christ came to give us more abundant 
life, also. We have a right to this inheritance 
of spiritual power. If we do not share it, it 
will be our own fault. God make us worthy 
to share it ! 

If we are joint-heirs with Christ here, we 
shall also share his inheritance in heaven; we 



WITH JESUS. 



187 



shall rejoice with him through the immortal 
years. If we confess him here, he will con- 
fess us there. If we bear the cross now, we 
shall wear the crown then. Many of our 
friends and fellow-Christians who have shared 
the battle with us, whose courage has often 
comforted us and inspired us, have already 
laid down the sword for the scepter of im- 
mortal glory. How rapidly they pass away 
from our side, making earth almost lonely, 
and filling heaven with attractive faces which 
beckon us onward. If we are faithful the day 
shall come when we shall hear, as they have 
already heard, the good cheer of our Lord's 
voice saying unto us, "Come, ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world." 



THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 



The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ap- 
peared to all men." — Titus ii. 11. 

Men have always been trying to devise 
some scheme by which they might buy salva- 
tion from their sins. The young ruler who 
came to Christ crying out, " Good Master, 
what good thing shall I do, that I may have 
eternal life?" had this idea in mind. He 
thought there must be some way by which he 
might earn heaven. He was, no doubt, ready 
to set off on a pilgrimage like the later Cru- 
saders, or like Sir Launfal and his compeers 
who went in search of the Holy Grail, if in 
that way he might make sure of a happy 
immortality. Many people in our own time 
are expecting somehow to work out salvation 
by an act of penance — as if by torturing the 
body one might cleanse and adorn the soul ! 
And even among people who do not believe 

188 



THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION, 189 

in the efficacy of penances there is still a feel- 
ing that they may fit themselves "by deeds 
of benevolence or righteousness for entrance 
into the kingdom of God. 

The whole spirit of the Bible, however, is 
in line with onr text, that salvation comes to 
us, if it comes at all, by the free grace of God. 
It is God's gift. Paul puts it very clearly in 
his letter to the Romans when he says, The 
wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is 
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
It is not possible for us to lay by any store of 
virtue, or extra stock of goodness, by which 
we may merit salvation. Here is a man who 
is in debt to his employer, and he goes on 
necessarily spending everything that he earns, 
week after week, in order to live. The months 
pass, and it is impossible for him to lay by a 
cent to pay on his debt. How can that man 
ever get free from his debt? Suppose the 
employer should come to him some day and 
say, "I find that you are hopelessly in debt. 
My heart is touched to see you going on this 
way, with that old debt forever hanging over 
your head, and with no prospect of ever 
escaping from under its pall. I have taken 
compassion on you, and am ready to cancel 
all the old indebtedness, and take you into the 



190 THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 

business as though you were my own son, and 
let you share with me in all the pleasures and 
profits of the estate." What would you think 
of a man to whom such an offer was made if 
he should say, " No ; it is really very kind of 
you to offer it, but I am not fit yet ; I must 
wait until I save up a small sum at least to 
pay on that old debt " ? And yet that is what 
men are doing who are trying to get to heaven 
through some righteousness of their own. My 
brother, it is a hopeless task. You are in debt 
already beyond possibility of payment. Your 
sins hang over you a sentence of condemna- 
tion. If you were never to sin again in your 
life the sins of the past would yet mean sorrow 
and disaster. You can never blot them out, 
and you can never atone for them, because 
the Lord has a right to all your service. If 
you were to live a spotless life from now on 
till the judgment, you could not lay up any- 
thing in the way of righteous conduct to can- 
cel the debt of your sin already committed. 
Here is where God's free grace comes in. 

Grod so loved the world" — that is the mes- 
sage which tells the story of the beginning of 
salvation; " the grace of God bringeth sal- 
vation " is the message of our text. 

That word " grace " many people use with- 



THE 3IESSENGEE OF SALVATION. 191 

out thinking what it means. As we use words 
now, it means to favor one; to give some- 
thing out of pure generosity. In business, 
men talk about certain days of grace, which 
means that certain days will be granted in 
the meeting of an obligation which by stern 
legal right you would not have. So salva- 
tion through Christ was born not of justice, 
but of love, and every one of us, whatever we 
may consider our degree of sinfulness to be, or 
whatever the world may think about our level 
of character, must take salvation humbly as 
the free gift of God. 

The note which runs through this text, and 
which, indeed, is the key-note of all the Bible, 
is in that word " salvation." At the bottom of 
all religions that fill the earth are the deep un- 
rest of a guilty conscience and the cry of a 
sinful heart to be freed from its consciousness 
of guilt and find peace with God. If we could 
only know what struggles are going on every 
day in the hearts of men and women who are 
fighting to be free from some evil tendency 
or wicked habit, and yet fighting in vain, we 
would stand back aghast at the spectacle. 
There are more tragedies in real life than are 
ever put on the stage or find their way into 
fiction. The grace of God through Jesus 



192 THE 3IESSENGEB OF SALVATION. 

Christ comes to bring salvation to men and 
women in such a case. 

There is a curious old tradition connected 
with the park and manor house of Lambton, 
on the estate of the Earl of Durham in Eng- 
land. The tradition is that in the fourteenth 
century the heir, young John Lambton, was 
leading a dissolute life which was punished 
in a strange way. He was one day fishing in 
the river, when he invoked the powers of evil 
to give him aid and success in one last cast of 
the rod. A great strain came upon the line, 
and, after a tremendous effort, he landed an im- 
mense and hideous worm. This in disgust he 
threw into a well close by, where it grew with 
such marvelous rapidity as soon to fill it up 
with its body and limbs ; and consequently it 
was able to scramble out. This horrid worm 
made its headquarters on a large rock in the 
center of the river, coiling about it, and at 
night raided the country round about, feed- 
ing upon the young of the cattle and the 
sheep, and causing men and women and 
children to flee for their lives. It finally 
threatened the castle itself. To propitiate it 
the Lord of Lambton placed troughs of milk 
in the way by which it was to approach ; but 
all to no avail. One brave knight after an- 



THE ME S SEN GEE OF SALVATION. 193 

other sought to make way with this terrible 
monster, but every one that attempted it was 
crushed to death in its tremendous folds. At 
last there came a knight of Rhodes, who took 
his position on the summit of the worm-rock 
to beard it in its own fortress. Sword in 
hand, he awaited the coming of the monster. 
At last the worm of Lambton had met its 
match and was slain. 

Sin yielded to is like the worm of Lamb- 
ton. It grows with every day of life; it 
becomes more ravenous as it is conciliated. 
The more men compromise with their sins, 
the more completely are they brought under 
their power. There is only one Knight who is 
able to make ever-successful war against the 
sinful habits which devastate and despoil the 
soul — Jesus, the Knight of God's grace, who 
comes with the sword of the Spiiit. Many 
who hear me can testify that before his sword 
the most tyrannical and oppressive sin goes 
down in defeat. Many of you have appealed 
to other sources of help and have failed, but 
Christ always conquers. He will come into 
your heart, where sin has made its fortress, 
and, making his stand in the country which 
the enemy has invaded, he will fight to the 
death every sin which threatens you with 



194 THE ME S SEN GEE OF SALVATION. 

ruin. He will dwell in your heart, and it is 
easy to be good in fellowship with him. 

A little girl suddenly died out of a home 
which she had filled with gladness and joy 
by her sweet temper and genuine goodness. 
"When her parents came to select a motto 
for the stone which marked her resting-place 
they had chiseled these words : " Of whom 
all her playmates said, it was easy to be good 
in her company." Could a prettier thing than 
that be said of any one? We all know how 
hard it is to be good in some people's com- 
pany, and how in the company of others the 
very moral atmosphere that breathes from 
face and conversation seems healthful and 
wholesome, so that we go away feeling, " It 
is easy to be good in their company." A dis- 
tinguished infidel once said that he did not 
dare to stay any longer at the residence of 
a certain Christian man for fear he might 
become a Christian in spite of himself. What 
he meant was that the spirit of Christ was 
so manifest in this man, and his sincerity and 
righteousness were so apparent, that it was 
almost impossible not to believe in the divine 
Christ when in his company. One of the most 
glorious things about inviting men to accept 



THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 195 

the grace of Grod which offers them salvation 
is that we may promise to them the fellow- 
ship of Christ in their daily lives. Many times 
men and women say to me, ^'I can't live a 
Christian life situated just as I am." But 
if you give your heart to Christ you will 
not be situated just as you are. You will 
have this great difference to begin with, that 
the pure and loving Saviour will become as 
real and conscious a personality to you as 
your dearest earthly friend; and of all the 
people that ever lived, Christ is the one in 
whose company it is easiest to be good. If 
some of you only knew how the volcanic 
anger and bitterness of your heart which have 
caused you so much sorrow might be forever 
flooded over and drowned out by the peace of 
God, you would not hesitate a moment. 

One of the most beautiful sights a traveler 
sees in Europe is the Bay of Naples. Xo one 
who has ever seen it on a quiet summer even- 
ing, and watched it as the night gathered and 
through the darkness the flashes of fire from 
the summit of Vesuvius, like some torch of 
Grod, lighted it, can ever forget the scene. 
But scientific men tell us that that lovely 
Bay of Naples is the crater of a worn-out and 



196 THE MESSENGER OF SALVATION. 

flooded volcano. In the early morning of the 
world's history it was perhaps the greatest 
volcano on the earth; it belched forth from 
its heart floods of seething lava. At last it 
sank down and down, its fiery heart was 
quelled, the lava ceased to flow, and in from 
the Mediterranean, perhaps first in some glo- 
rious day of storm, swept the white caps of 
the sea and overflowed the crater and filled 
it full, and to-day the beautiful waters lie 
in peace and mirror back the shining heavens 
above. 

There are men listening to me who have 
had an experience like that in their own lives. 
There was a time when evil temper, or fiery 
lust, or vicious habit, burned and flamed in 
your heart until to your aroused conscience 
it seemed like the very gaping mouth of hell. 
And then in some tender way God brought 
his free grace through Jesus Christ to your 
attention. With trembling, almost hopeless, 
heart you opened the door to him, and into 
your heart and life there have poured the beau- 
tiful waters of salvation. The old crater is 
filled up with the waves of peace. Your heart 
no longer belches forth flames of evil, but is 
a mirror where God looks and sees his own 
face. Oh, my friend, you who are ready to 



THE ME S SEN GEE OF SALVATION. 197 



despair because of your sins, what has been 
wrought in others may be accomplished in 
you ; for the free grace of God brings salva- 
tion to all men. Will you accept it here and 
now? 



THE IDEAL CHARACTEE. 



The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the ex- 
cellency of Carmel and Sharon ; they shall see the glory 
of the Lord, and the excellency of our God." — Isa, 
XXXV. 2. 

This is a grand and suggestive picture of 
the union of strength and beauty in Christian 
character. In Bible times the cedar of Leba- 
non was the ideal of grandeur and strength. 
When Ezekiel desired to sketch the strong- 
est possible picture in describing the Assy- 
rians, he did so in these most beautiful words 
representing a forest of cedar-trees in the 
Lebanon mountains: "A cedar in Lebanon 
with fair branches, and with a shadowing 
shroud, and of an high stature ; and his top was 
among the thick boughs. The waters made 
him great, the deep set him up on high with her 
rivers running round about his plants, and sent 
out her little rivers unto all the trees of the 
field. Therefore his height was exalted above 

198 



THE IDEAL CHAMACTEB, 199 



all the trees of the field, and his boughs were 
multiplied, and his branches became long be- 
cause of the multitude of waters, when he shot 
forth. All the fowls of heaven made their 
nests in his boughs, and under his branches 
did all the beasts of the field bring forth their 
young. . . . Thus was he fair in his great- 
ness, in the length of his branches : for his 
root was by great waters. . . . The fir-trees 
were not like his boughs, and the chestnut- 
trees were not like his branches ; nor any tree 
in the garden of Grod was like unto him in his 
beauty." When one reads a description like 
that and remembers that it is such strong and 
splendid things in nature which God uses to 
set forth the ideal which is in his mind con- 
cerning the life and character which it is pos- 
sible for us to illustrate, he is humbled and 
inspired at the same time. There is certainly 
in this picture the strongest possible sugges- 
tion that the Christian is to live a strong and 
vigorous and useful life. There is nothing 
weak or feeble in the outline of character sug- 
gested to us here. Indeed, the whole Bible 
idea of righteous character is strong and mus- 
cular. Over and over again some prophet like 
Elijah stands on his Mount Carmel and says, 
" Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ! " 



200 THE IDEAL CHABACTEM. 



The Christian life is a life of will, and deci- 
sion, and purpose. There is no idle drifting 
about it. Jesus himself said : " If any man 
will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow me." The Chris- 
tian life is one that is lived on purpose, a life of 
deliberate intention. Dr. Charles Parkhurst, 
in an editorial in " Zion^s Herald," eloquently 
says that intention is an important element in 
the fashioning of the religious life. It enters 
into the beginnings and remains in the prog- 
ress of our religious experience. Intention 
is the attitude of the mind when ready to 
act, and always indicates a certain kind of 
strength, a consciousness of power. Like 
Paul's racer in Hebrews, there is the firm 
planting of the foot, the bending toward the 
goal, and the girding of the loins for the race. 
The gaze is steady, the muscles tense, and the 
energies are compressed for the forward leap. 
This deep, earnest intention goes before all 
great achievements and is the crowning char- 
acteristic of all superior and masterful lives. 

One of the greatest of the Florentine paint- 
ers was Bartolommeo. His great success in 
producing works that are immortal was made 
possible by a strong moral revolution wrought 
in his soul under the preaching of Savonarola. 



THE ILEAL CHALACTER 201 



It was "while he was painting " The Last Judg- 
ment " in St. Mark's. Savonarola was preach- 
ing in Florence with a fiery fervor and fearless 
eloquence that burned the heart of prince and 
of pauper alike. Under the inspiration of his 
wonderful sermons the artists of Florence re- 
enacted the scenes that were witnessed in 
Ephesus when, under the preaching of Paul 
and Silas, a certain class of men brought their 
vicious books to the value of thousands of 
dollars and burned them in the public streets. 
So it was in Florence with the painters. Bar- 
tolommeo was so profoundly affected that he 
united with others in kindling a bonfire on 
the main street of Florence, into which he cast 
all his designs, drawings and studies which 
represented profane or lascivious subjects. 
From that day on Bartolommeo ceased to 
paint for his own honor or gain, but as a 
son of God he consecrated his art to God's 
glory. 

Strength in God's world always indicates 
usefulness. The lofty mountain is high not 
for itself alone, but that it may be a reservoir 
for the valleys. The cedar of Lebanon did 
not lift its branches into the clouds for its 
own glory only, but that it might be a safe 
nesting-place for the birds of the air and give 



202 THE IDEAL CHAEACTEB. 



shadow for man and beast on the earth be- 
neath. So in Christian character, as in physi- 
cal things, the condition of strength is useful- 
ness and one feeds the other. The story is 
told of a rich Hollander who had an only 
daughter whom he loved exceedingly, and he 
ransacked the earth for beautiful things to 
satisfy her wants. But after a while she 
seemed to lose all joy in living. Her health 
became delicate, she had no zest in life ; and 
in spite of all he could do it seemed as though 
she would fade away before his eyes. The 
greatest physicians exerted their skill in her 
behalf in vain. Finally, the father heard of a 
physician in the city whose practice was 
largely among the poor, yet the report of 
whose marvelous cures had repeatedly spread 
throughout the entire community. This man 
was recommended to the rich Hollander. At 
first he would not think of employing him, so 
great was his contempt for his plebeian asso- 
ciations. But he finally became so alarmed 
for his child that he thrust his pride away and 
sent for him. The doctor came, saw and 
heard. The father related to him the long 
story of the sickness of his daughter, and 
then conducted him to his patient. The phy- 
sician examined and questioned, and received 



THE IDEAL CHABACTEB, 203 



languid answers. Then he had his patient 
pass back and forth before him in the room a 
few times, when, exhausted, she sank into an 
easy-chair. Finally the father, with beating 
heart, asked him : " Doctor, is it possible to 
help her ? " "I hope God will help," answered 
the physician ; " but you must implicitly follow 
my advice." " What kind of treatment, then, 
do you expect to begin ? " " You procure for 
her a neat, substantial dress, such as the com- 
mon people wear, and a hat to match the dress. 
I shall make calls with your daughter to-mor- 
row," answered the physician. The father 
clasped his hands together above his head and 
exclaimed : Make calls with her ? She has 
not been in the open air for days and weeks ! " 
To this exclamation the physician shrugged 
his shoulders and said : ''If you will not fol- 
low my advice, then I cannot help you. To- 
morrow at ten o'clock I shall be here again, 
but for the last time if you do not follow my 
advice." With this he departed. The pecu- 
liar conduct of the man had a great influence 
on the father, and he concluded, after much 
reflection, to follow the advice of the new 
doctor. The prescription was filled. The ap- 
parel, new and uncommon to her, aroused 
new life in the girl, so that she was dressed 



204 THE IDEAL CHAEACTEB, 

and ready at the appointed hour. The physi- 
cian came, and, taking her arm, left the house, 
while the father with great anxiety watched 
them from his window until they disappeared. 
On the street the doctor told her : We shall 
not go far to-day." On the next street they 
entered the second story of a house wherein 
poverty and sickness had held sway for a long 
time. The mother, a widow, was severely 
bedridden ; the children, with emaciated faces, 
stood about her ; and poverty was written in 
only too readable terms in the whole room. 
The doctor instructed and encouraged them, 
and left them some medicine without charg- 
ing for it. His companion, who had not vis- 
ited anything similar in all her life, was as- 
tonished ; her heart went out in sympathy for 
this distressed home. As they left the house, 
she took the doctor's arm, and, looking him in 
the face, said: "But, doctor, my father must 
help in this case." Upon this a color came 
into her face, such as had not been there for 
a long time. And the physician answered: 
" Yes ; do not forget to most earnestly entreat 
your father for help ; but remember there is a 
greater Helper than your father, and entreat 
him also." By this time they had reached 
the street, and the physician said: "Well, 



THE IDEAL CH ABAC TEE. 205 



shall we go to another place ? " And she an- 
swered : " Yes ; I will go with yon.'^ There they 
found distress again, only in a different form, 
which also aroused her sympathy. After this 
he took his patient home. To the questions 
of her father as to how far they had gone and 
where they had been she scarcely replied. 
She began at once : " Father, I have seen 
great distress, and you must help." Then the 
story was told him. When the father saw 
these signs of life in his daughter, he gladly 
granted her requests. But the doctor had 
again particular instructions. He said to his 
patient: ^^All that these poor people are to 
have, you must yourself deliver. Your ser- 
vant may carry it, but you must accompany 
her. You must give no money ; but clothing, 
things to eat, and such like. Every time you 
call you must read to the sick mother a 
Psalm which you have previously been care- 
ful to select." This new prescription worked 
marvelously. As the young woman fulfilled 
these instructions she found herseK on the 
highroad to health. She was again interested 
in something; she learned to pray, to love, 
and to rejoice. The dress of the common citi- 
zen, worn in service, became to her the dress 
of salvation. There are many whose Chris- 



206 



THE IDEAL CHAEACTER, 



tiaii life is weak and languid who might be 
saved if they would follow the same prescrip- 
tion in giving themselves up to humble imita- 
tion of the Master in going about doing good. 

The chief glory of Lebanon is not, after all, 
in its height and majesty of appearance, but 
in its being a great reservoir to make fertile 
the long slope and to fill with beauty the 
flowering plains and valleys. So a Christian 
character is not for strength only, but for 
beauty as well. It is beautiful in its strength. 
The sweet graces of the Christian life, such as 
love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, are blos- 
soms which are the outward manifestation of 
those deep underlying roots of purpose which 
nourish a Christian character. It is said that 
there are certain kinds of weeds that lie at 
the bottom of the sea, but when their flower- 
ing time comes they shoot long, slender ten- 
drils up through the salt water toward the 
light, and float upon the top, so that their 
flowers may open in thankfulness to the sun. 
So in the depths of the soul, imbedded in our 
hidden nature, lie the roots of purpose and 
ambition which are the sources of our growth ; 
but the sweet graces of the Christian life must 
blossom and shed their fragrance where they 
may give joy and blessing to all who see. 



THE IDEAL CHAEACTEK 



207 



And there are no flowers so beautiful as 
those which bloom upon a true Christian 
character. 

A very pretty little story is told about 
Edward Everett Hale: A few years ago a 
man who has now made a name for himself 
found himself in London, utterly discouraged, 
and, as the phrase goes, stranded." There 
was no one to whom he could turn, and in 
despair he took passage home on the first 
steamer. To cap the climax of his misfor- 
tunes, a felon broke out on his right thumb, 
so that it was impossible for him to hold a 
pen* "When he stepped on the gang-plank of 
the steamer, whom should he see but Dr. 
Hale ! Now this gentleman had met Dr. Hale 
but once in his life, and had no claim on him 
and no reason to believe that he would be 
remembered at all. But to his delight, be- 
fore he had a chance even to test the recogni- 
tion, he was grasped by the hand and Dr. 

Hale said : ^' I am delighted, Mr. , to see 

you. I had no idea that I should know a soul 
on board, and now we'll have a pleasant pas- 
sage over." It was not very long until, with 
characteristic sympathy, Dr. Hale had learned 
all his young friend's woes. ''Let me write 
your letters," he said ; " there is nothing I en- 



208 



THE IDEAL CHABACTEB, 



joy SO much as writing.'' So Dr. Hale became 
the poor fellow's stenographer, and from dic- 
tation wrote up all his correspondence. When 
his friend was confined to his stateroom, Dr. 
Hale went down and spent hours every day 
telling him stories, cheering him out of him- 
self, and acting like a professional entertainer, 
until, before the voyage was over, he had made 
a new man out of the despairing fellow. When 
they arrived in Boston Dr. Hale did not rest 
until he had put the young man on his feet 
again. It is said that when this story was 
told to a literary man in Boston he turned 
and said: ''We don't consider that much of 
anything for Hale to do. Why, there is 
hardly a man of my age about Boston who 
has been suffering or friendless or discour- 
aged, but Dr. Hale has put him on his feet, 
and at what cost to himself no man knows. 
There are a dozen well-known men I could 
mention who, but for that grand man, would 
have gone to the dogs. I am one of them 
myself — Grod bless him ! " And yet, as in 
this case of the poor fellow on shipboard, it 
seems such a little thing to do that many peo- 
ple would not have thought it worth while ; 
but the value was priceless to the man who 
received it. 



THE IDEAL CHAEACTER. 



209 



It was only a sunny smile, 
And little it cost in the giving : 
But it scattered the night 
Like morning light, 
And made the day worth living. 

Through life's dull warp a woof it wove 
In shining colors of hope and love ; 
And the angels smiled as they watched above, 
Yet Httle it cost in the giving. 

It was only a kindly word, 
A word that was lightly spoken ; 
Yet not in vain, 
For it stilled the pain 
Of a heart that was nearly broken. 
It strengthened a faith beset by fears, 
And groping blindly through mists of tears 
For light to brighten the coming years. 
Although it was lightly spoken." 



CHRIST'S NEW ROAD TO HEAVEN. 



" A new and living way." — Reb, x. 20. 

Many times in our Eastern cities I have seen 
at the corner of the street the sign, ^'Danger- 
ous Passing," or ''No Thoroughfare," or "Not 
a Highway." There may be a way through, 
but such notices are intended to indicate that 
if one undertakes to pass he does so at his 
own peril. It is not a living way in the eye 
of the street commissioner, or the city gov- 
ernment ; it is a dead way. Under the He- 
brew dispensation there was a way of sacri- 
fice through the blood of goats and lambs and 
calves, which led earnest souls toward heaven ; 
but when in the fullness of time Christ came 
into the world and made once for all a sacri- 
fice for our sins by giving his own body to be 
slain, the old way became dead, and Christ 
opened up the new* and living way — a way 
which shall be alive with welcome and hope 

210 



CHBISTS NEW BO AD TO HEAVEN, 211 



until tlie final judgment shall settle the des- 
tiny of every human being. 

There are many reasons for calling the way 
of salvation through Christ a living way. It 
is a living way because Christ is living. He 
became our way of salvation through death, 
but he hath broken the bands of death asun- 
der and forever liveth to make intercession 
for us. At the court of heaven he ever keeps 
the way of mercy open through his interces- 
sions. Beautifully does the poet sing of this 
precious intercession : 

* " Where is my God ? Does he retire 
Beyond the reach of human sighs ^ 
Are these weak breathings of desire 
Too languid to ascend the skies ^ 

Look up, my soul, with cheerful eye ) 
See where the great Eedeemer stands, 

The glorious Advocate on high, 
With precious incense in his hands ! 

He sweetens every humble groan, 
He recommends each broken prayer ^ 

Eechne thy hope on him alone. 
Whose power and love forbid despair." 

It is a living way, also, because new trav- 
elers are all the time coming into it. The 
gates are open day and night, and every one 



212 CHBISTS NEW BO AD TO HEAVEN, 

who leaves his sins behind him finds abundant 
welcome. The wages of sin is death, and no 
seeds of death are allowed on that highway of 
holiness ; the one condition of entrance is that 
we turn away from sin. No one is so de- 
graded, no one so handicapped by inheritance 
of evil, but that he will be given most abun- 
dant entrance if he will give up his sins. 

A Christian woman once visited an insti- 
tution where homeless and friendless children 
are cared for. Among the little inmates she 
came to one to whom her heart went out, and 
she said, " This child I want for my own." 

" He is not for adoption," said the person in 
charge. 

The woman looked around, but saw no 
other child that attracted her as this one had, 
and went away sorrowful. In a few days she 
came again to visit the child. 

At length, with tears in her eyes, she said : 
" Why cannot I have the child I want ? " 

They told her then the story of the baby, 
and of the utter depravity of its parents. 
There was bad blood in the child, and it would 
be a terrible risk to take it. 

The woman went away, but after three or 
four days she returned, saying: " I have come 
for my baby. If you think he will be more 



CHBISTS NEW BO AD TO HEAVEN, 213 



likely to be a good boy and man with my 
mother love, brought up in a Christian home, 
give him to me. Grod will take care of the 
rest." 

Her love and prayers prevailed. They gave 
the ill-born waif into her hands. She took 
him to her heart and consecrated him to 
Christ. Many years have passed — the lit- 
tle, helpless, hopeless waif has grown into a 
magnificent specimen of Christian manhood. 
Thank God, this new and living way is open 
for the steps of the waifs of sin on the same 
terms as to the heirs of culture and fortune. 

It is a living way in another important 
sense, and that is that the travelers in this 
way grow more vigorous and alive the farther 
they go. What a popular road it would be if 
there were anywhere in the country a high- 
way charged with vigor and life, so that a man 
walking on it would lose his rheumatism, and 
his weariness, and the stiffness in his joints, 
and with every step he made on the road 
there should be communicated into his limbs 
from the way itself some electric health re- 
storer to supply the freshness and supple- 
ness of youth as he walked. The way of 
salvation is like that. It is the way of life. 
Men get more abundant life as they pursue 



214 CHRIST 8 NEW BO AD TO HEAVEN. 

this heavenly way. There is no disease or 
death there. Some people wander off the 
road and fall into spiritual disease and death ; 
but no man walks straight forward on the 
highway of holiness without finding that life 
grows stronger and more vigorous with the 
years. " The vulture's eye hath not seen " this 
path. Vultures are always looking for dead 
carcasses, and there are none on this new and 
living way. The Christian life is safe to every 
one who keeps to the path. No ravenous 
beast treads on that road. There is no lion 
there : The lion's whelp hath not trodden it, 
nor the fierce lion passed by it.'' 

It is a new way. It never gets old. It is 
ever fresh and beautiful. It is not only new 
to the people who have just come into it, but 
if you talk with those who have been on the 
way for half a century, they will tell you it 
gets more delightfully fresh and beautiful as 
they go on. It is new and strong, solid and 
safe, and will never break under your feet. 

There was a terrible scene in an opera-house 
in a great city recently. The play on the 
stage bore the appropriate title, " The Dan- 
gers of a Great City." Suddenly in the midst 
of a performance there was a crash, and the 
central dome of the ceiling fell, killing and in- 



CHJRISrS NEW EOAB TO HEAVEN. 215 

juring many of the spectators. An investiga- 
tion revealed the cause of the disaster to be 
that the heavy dome was held up merely by 
wooden trusses and joists. These, worm-eaten 
and rotten through and through, were warped, 
the nails and bolts were rusty and loose, the 
brick walls at the side were old and crum- 
bling. The wonder was that it had not fallen 
long before. There is a broad road that leads 
to death which is built like that. Ever and 
anon men are breaking through into eternal 
disaster and despair. 

What road are you on ? This is the impor- 
tant question. Is it the way of sin that leads 
down to death, or is it the new and living 
way that leads to heaven ? Dr. Joseph F. 
Berry relates that he was on a train a little 
while ago which had gotten several miles out 
of the city when the conductor came around 
after the tickets. A quiet-looking gentleman 
just in front of him handed over his ticket. 

" You are on the wrong road," said the con- 
ductor ; " this ticket reads to Detroit, and you 
are now on your way to the South." 

" The wrong road ! Is it jpossible ? Then 
you must stop the train, sir. I am due to fill 
an important engagement at Detroit to-night, 
and I must be there. Stop this train. Stop 



210 CJIIUSPS XEW kOAD TO HEAVEN. 



at the junction and let me off! I think I can 
get back, and catch a later train East. 

The conductor said he was already behind 
time and could not stop. 

" You must stop ! thundered the jjassenger, 
now thoroughly aroused, and stepx)ing out into 
the aisle. 

The conductor looked into his resolute face, 
hesitated only a rnonaent, and then seized the 
bell-cord. The train came to a sudden ntoj) 
just beyond the junction. It so happened 
that a north-bound train stood on the siding. 
It was boarded by the determined passenger, 
and before the train he had been on was well 
under way again, he was sjjeeding back to 
Chicago. 

Some who hear me to-night, if they could 
only realize how rapidly sinful habits were 
speeding them away from God and heaven, 
would cry out with all the energy of their 
souls : Stop this train ! " 

Alas ! it is not always that a traveler who 
has mistaken the Avay so readily turns about 
toward his destination. Sometimes a mistake 
of that kind, even though finally rectified, 
may cause large expense and much anxiety 
and sorrow. 

Not long since a citizen of Chicago had 



CHBISrS XEW BOAB TO HEAVEN. 217 

been spending a few days at Victoria, British 
Columbia. His business in the town being 
finished, he inquired the best way of reaching 
Tacoma, the next city on his route. He was 
told that a steamer would sail for Tacoma 
that afternoon, and he promptly packed his 
valise and started for the dock. He knew 
that he had no time to spare, so when he 
reached the dock and saw a steamer prepar- 
ing to leave, he hurried to get on board. The 
gang-plank had already been drawn in, but 
he tossed his valise on board and jumped 
after it. He congratulated himself on the 
triumph, always so gratifying to a busy man, 
of just catching a departing ship or train, and 
speedily went below to make himself at home 
for the trij). When he came back on deck, 
he made some inquiry which elicited the fact 
that the steamer on which he was traveling 
was bound not for Tacoma, Washington, as 
he had supposed, but for the Hawaiian Isl- 
ands. The Tacoma steamer had been lying 
next to the one he was on, and in his hurry 
he had not noticed the difference in the size 
of the two vessels. There was no way to 
get ashore, and he was compelled to travel 
twenty-five hundred miles out of his waj', 
and will have to travel the same distance 



218 (IHUJHVH NEW 10) A J) TO IIKAVKN. 



bar-k a^ain, to r^^aclj }jis d(iStiriation. It is 
probablo Uial man will riovor a^ain start 
on a Joui-rj<'^y without making suro that he is 
trav^^ling irj the right direction. 

And yet many of yon ai*e traveling in just 
the opposite diro.etion from where you say 
you warjt to go. You say you want to go to 
heavfifj, and yet you refuse to erjter the way 
\n\\](\\\ lea^ls there. You are going on in the 
path of sin, gfjtting deeper into the mire 
all tlie time, and every step is taking you 
straigfit away from heaverj. Many who have 
foufid the way of salvatiorj in later years 
have come to it by going a long way aroand, 
like the man who went to Tfonolulu in order 
to go to Taeonja. Tlj^jre Ijave been scores of 
r/icrj arjd worrjen corjver-ted irj this cljurcij 
recently who will earnestly tell you that if 
they had taken the straight path into the new 
and livirjg Avay to heaven from the Sunday- 
school, or from the kne^i of their praying 
motijoj-, libi would }jave been infinitely hap- 
pier for tlicm. ^rijenj is nothing that they 
regret so bitterly as the fact that through sin- 
ful habits, and experience in wickedness, and 
days arid nigfjts of remorse, they wandered 
from the way that was only a stei> from them 
in their childhood. 



CHBISTS NEW BOAB TO HEAVEN. 219 



But, alas ! many who go on the other way 
never get back. "We rejoice over the prodi- 
gals who get home, but angels weep over 
the prodigals who die away from home. 
Come straight into the new way to-night ! 
Yon will find that in yonth or in old age, 
in prosperity or in adversity, t-he new and 
living way will be a way of freshness and 
beauty. You need Christ as much in the 
light as in the darkness; you need him in 
success as much as in defeat. In the new way 
he will walk with you in blessed fellowship. 

Somebody said recently to Fanny Crosby," 
the blind poet and hymn-wiiter : You never 
refer to your affliction in your hymns, unless 
it is in the one entitled 'All the Way my 
Saviour Leads Me.' " Her reply was : I never 
thought of it while writing that hjTun ; we 
need the Saviour to lead us even if we can 
see;" and the bright smile that played upon 
the face of the blind hymn-writer revealed 
the fact that Christ was ever guiding her. 

I bid you welcome at this hour, out of all 
the darkness and perilous ways of sin, into 
the new and living way which leads ever 
upward to the heavenly city. 



THREE CHEISTIAN CEETAINTIES. 



" One thing thou lackest." — MarTc x. 21. 

One thing- 1 do."— Fhil. iii. 13. 
^' One thing I know." — John ix. 25. 

Heee are three great Christian certainties. 
The first was spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ 
himself. An aspiring ambitions young man 
who was desirous of making the best of him- 
self, and who saw in Christ something more 
splendid than he had ever seen in any one else, 
came pressing through the crowd as Jesus 
walked on the highway. With the impulsive- 
ness of youth and the energy of an earnest 
soul he fell on his knees before the Saviour, 
exclaiming : " Good Master, what shall I do 
that I may inherit eternal life ? " Christ in- 
quired of him about the commandments and 
named some of them ; and looking the Master 
straight in the eye, with unaffected honesty 
he declared, " Master, all these have I observed 

220 



THBEE CnniSTIAN CEBTAINTIES, 221 

from my youth." And then there is said of 
this yonng man what is not said of any one 
else whom Jesns met among all the people 
who thronged him from time to time, with the 
exception of the little band of his personal 
friends. Mark says : Then Jesus beholding 
him loved him." But Jesus perceived the se- 
cret danger of this young man to be his love 
of the world and its treasures, and so went 
straight to the mark with his unerring accu- 
racy and said : One thing thou lackest." 
Had he told the young man how to become a 
Christian by any sort of works, or at any cost 
save the surrender of his whole heart and 
treasure to the will of Grod, he would no doubt 
have heard him gladly; but he went away 
with a cloud on his brow, grieved and sad, 
because of his unwillingness to cut the cord 
of his worldliness and follow Christ in humble 
service. What a great blunder it was ! We 
have no knowledge that he ever became a 
Christian. We are very sure he did not 
during the life of Jesus, for so interesting an 
event would have been mentioned in one of 
these gospels. Poor man ! he clung to his 
worldly treasures a little while longer, and 
they probably caused him as much sorrow as 
they did joy, and then he went, bankrupt, into 



222 THUEE CHBISTIAN CEETAINTIES. 

eternity. If he had followed Jesus^ advice 
and put his purse at his disposal, he would 
have had a hundredfold more joy in this 
world, and in the world to come all the trea- 
sures of heaven. 

Dr. Junker, the Russian explorer, was much 
wiser than that when he found himself far up 
the Nile with the warlike Mahdists blocking 
his way to the coast. There was only one 
chance for his life, and that was to persuade 
some Arab trader to become responsible for 
him. But the Arabs would not take him 
in their caravans for fear they would lose 
the friendship of the native chiefs along the 
road. At last, Junker went to one of the 
traders with this proposal : " You cannot take 
me with you as a friend," he said, " but you 
can take me as a slave. Look at this." And 
Dr. Junker showed the trader an order writ- 
ten in Arabic and signed by a well-known 
firm in Zanzibar, authorizing the doctor to 
make any arrangements he desired with the 
Arabs of Central Africa and the firm would 
honor his drafts. " Now," continued Dr. Jun- 
ker, " I have written out a contract, and if 
you will sign it with me I shall reach the 
coast. It provides that when you deliver me 
alive at Zanzibar, the sum of fifteen hundred 



THEEE CHBISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 223 

dollars will be paid to you by this firm. You 
cannot take me with you as a traveler or a 
friend, and you must therefore take me as a 
slave." The contract was made on this basis. 
In passing through the hostile tribes, the 
white man was represented to be a slave who 
had been purchased from a negro tribe far- 
ther north. As a slave he passed muster even 
at the court of cruel King Mwanga, and was 
allowed to pass on in peace with his supposed 
master. 

What was a deception in this case is a gen- 
uine truth in our escape from the condem- 
nation of the broken law of God. Our only 
hope of salvation is that Jesus Christ hath 
redeemed us from under the law. No man 
or woman in this world will ever be saved be- 
cause of merit. We are all sinners against 
God. We have broken the law which says, 
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The 
hope of salvation comes through Jesus Christ 
our Saviour, who has ransomed us by his 
own blood, and God has promised that who- 
soever will accept this redemption may be 
saved as the servant of J esus Christ who has 
redeemed us, and who has the right to our 
love and our service. And so to every one 
here who has not accepted J esus, and rendered 



224 THBEE CHBISTIAN CEBTAINTIES. 

him the obedience of an open confession, Christ 
is saying, One thing thou lackest." But, 
alas ! it is as bad to lack that as to lack every- 
thing. It is like the drowning sailor missing 
the life-line ; he misses only one thing, but, 
missing that, misses all. 

The next Christian certainty is the decision, 
with the eye on the prize at the end of the 
race, to concentrate your will and purpose as 
Paul did, in saying, This one thing I do." 
Paul did that through storm and shine, and 
wrought out for himself a glorious immortality. 
Oh, that Grod may give to you who are halt- 
ing between two opinions a new drawing of the 
Holy Spirit that will enable you to turn your 
face toward Christ and say : " One thing I do "! 
I would that you could feel the importance 
of it as did a man to whom Bishop McCabe 
spoke a few weeks ago. He was in a strange 
city, and as the hackman got down off his box 
and opened the door the bishop grasped his 
hand as he paid his fare, saying : " Grood night ; 
I hope to meet you again in glory." The 
bishop had often done that, and he gave the 
matter no special thought at this time. He 
went into the house, met his host, and retired 
to his room for the night. About midnight 
his host knocked at his chamber door and 



THEEE CREISTIAN CEBTAINTIES. 225 



said : " Chaplain, that hackman has come back, 
and he says that he has got to see you to-night. 
I told him that he had better wait until morn- 
ing, but he said, ' No, sir ; I must see him to- 
night, and I know that he will be willing to 
see me.'" "When the hackman came up, a 
broad-shouldered, rough-looking man with a 
whip in his hand, and stood there in the bish- 
op's presence, great tears were rolling down 
his cheeks. Said he : " If I meet you in glory, 
I've got to turn around. I have come to ask 
you to pray with me." With a joyous heart 
the bishop got down on his knees and prayed 
with that man, and pointed him to Christ, 
"the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world." That man had the right 
spirit and the right attitude toward his 
soul's salvation. He dared not wait until 
morning, for fear that with the night should 
go the drawing of the Holy Spirit which 
he felt had come to him from heaven. Some 
of yeu stand at that place. God's Spirit 
has called you again and again, and at this 
hour you feel that you ought to be Chris- 
tians. Don't let anything keep you back, but 
decide, this very moment, " This one thing 
I do." 

Of some of you who have been so strangely 



226 THREE CHRISTIAN CERTAINTIES. 

moved toward heaven recently, I have grave 
fears that if you fail to come into the king- 
dom of Grod now you will be forever defeated. 
Dr. John Watson says that years ago on a 
summer afternoon he stood on a little harbor- 
wall and saw two vessels trying to make the 
entrance. They were in a narrow channel, 
and, since there was not water enough to 
keep them up, were lying on their sides. 
But far out the tide had begun to turn. 
One wave after another passed under them 
until soon the water was twelve feet deep in 
the harbor and the green foaming billows 
rushed in like a mill-race. He looked again 
toward the narrow passage. On one vessel 
they had taken advantage of the wind at 
the right moment, and floated in on the full 
tide; on the other vessel they were not on 
the alert, and when they tried to make the 
harbor the tide had turned and they could 
not. The water grew more shallow, they 
gave up the attempt, and gradually the ves- 
sel heeled over and lay just as before on 
the bank of sand. At nightfall he went down 
again, and in the gathering darkness, as he 
saw the forsaken vessel, he prayed that he 
might not miss the tide which Grod gives to 
our souls, nor quench his Spirit within his 



THEEE CHBISTIAN CEETAINTIES. 227 

heart. I offer the same prayer for you. The 
tide is running in, and if you will you may 
be saved ; but, if you are neglectful, for some 
of you the tide will swiftly turn and you may 
be stranded for eternity. 

Do not imagine that anything short of the 
open confession and frank surrender of your 
will to Christ can possibly bring you into 
the harbor of safety. Some of you have gone 
as far as the young man about whom we were 
speaking a moment ago; you, as he, have 
turned to Christ in prayer; but unless you 
make an open surrender of yourself to him, 
he will still say to you, and continue to say it 
at the judgment-seat, '^One thing thou lack- 
est." In the name of your Saviour I appeal 
to you to remedy that lack by the new pur- 
pose, " One thing I do." 

If you do that, you will know the joy and 
the gladness suggested in our third Christian 
certainty, ^' One thing I know." A blind man 
to whom Christ had given sight said this. 
There was great excitement in the town as 
to who had healed the man and concerning 
the character of Jesus. They even went so 
far as to declare that the man had never 
been blind. But when his father and mother 
were called they said he was their son, and 



228 THBEE CHBISTIAN CEBTAINTIES. 



had been born blind, but lie would have to 
speak for himself as to how he had come 
to have his sight. Then the enemies of Jesus 
urged him to give the praise to God, instead 
of to Christ ; for, they said, " We know that 
this man is a sinner.'' Then the blind man 
answered: ""Whether he be a sinner or no, 
I know not : one thing I know, that, whereas 
I was blind, now I see." 

Thank God, this is a religion that a man 
may test. There are many now who in a 
spiritual way can bear the same testimony 
as did this man concerning the opening of 
his eyes. One thing we know, that whereas 
once sin blinded our eyes and burdened our 
hearts and filled our consciences with reproof, 
Jesus Christ has taken it all away. This is 
not a matter of theory, but a matter of expe- 
rience. Men who were once the slaves of 
strong drink are now sober, and the power of 
the appetite is broken. One thing they know, 
that whereas they were once the slaves of that 
wicked habit, Christ has set them free. Men 
who were once profane and prayerless are 
now reverent in heart ; prayer is their natural 
atmosphere and songs of love and confidence 
in Christ rise spontaneously to their lips. 
One thing they know, that their irreverence 



THBEE CHRISTIAN CEBTAINTIES. 229 



lias changed to adoration and love. Those 
who once cared for nothing but the pleasures 
and follies of life now find that to do good 
for Christ's sake, to lift the burdens from 
the shoulders of the weak, to dry the tears 
of the sorrowing, gives them infinitely more 
joy than they ever knew in the old life. One 
thing they know, that giddiness and folly 
have changed in them to lo^dng devotion to 
Christ and their fellow-men. So I might go 
on through all the phases of human life and 
call witnesses to testify to the transforma- 
tions which have come in their experience. 
I do not call you to a life of theorizing, but 
to a life of experience. The psalmist says, 
"0 taste and see that the Lord is good." 
Do not worry about things you do not un- 
derstand. Christ foresaw that some people 
would do that, and hence he said for their 
benefit : If any man will do his will, he shall 
know of the doctrine, whether it be of Grod, 
or whether I speak of myself." Obey Christ, 
and sufficient light will fall upon your path 
for all your needs. If you obey him you 
shall have the witness of the Spirit, agree- 
ing with your spirit, that you no longer 
belong to the kingdom of evil, but are a 
child of Grod, a fellow-heir with Jesus. 



CHEIST THE PAEDON-BRINGER. 

The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins." — Marh ii. 10. 

These words are connected with one of the 
most interesting stories in the life of Jesus. 
A man who was sick of the palsy had four 
friends who, knowing of the wonderful works 
of Christ in the healing of disease, determined 
to give their helpless friend the benefit of his 
treatment. "We do not know how much diffi- 
culty they had to persuade him to make the 
attempt, but it is likely that a man suffering 
from the palsy would not be very hard to per- 
suade to try a new doctor who made no 
charge for his cures and the fame of whose 
deeds was on everybody's tongue. It is quite 
probable that these men had themselves been 
healed by Christ, and in their joy at their re- 
newed strength they thought of their friend 
lying helpless, and agreed that he, too, should 

230 



CHEIST TEE FAHBOX-BEINGEE, 231 

have the advantage of the wonderful power 
of Christ. "WTien we think of the remarkable 
faith and energy which they showed later, it 
is easy to believe that there was some per- 
sonal experience of this kind behind their 
confidence. 

The sick man was so utterly helpless that 
the only way to bring him to Christ was for 
one man to take each corner of the bed ; and 
thus they came carrying him through the 
street. ^Tien they came to the place where 
Christ was, they found not only the house full, 
but the street as well, and it was impossible 
for them to get even as far as the door. So 
they got the man to the top of the house, and 
opened the roof and let down the bed with the 
sick man on it at the very feet of Jesus. The 
record says that '' when Jesus saw their faith, 
he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy 
sins be forgiven thee." 

There were in the crowd a number of crit- 
ical people who were watching to pick flaws 
in Jesus, and find some reason to accuse a 
man who was becoming so suddenly famous. 
These people immediately put their heads to- 
gether and said : '' Why doth this man thus 
speak blasphemies ? who can forgive sins but 
Grod only ? " Jesus, perceiving their attitude to- 



232 CHBIST THE FABnON-BBINGEM. 

ward him, said to them, " Why reason ye these 
things in your hearts ? Whether is it easier to 
say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be for- 
given thee ; or to say. Arise, and take up thy 
bed, and walk ? But that ye may know that 
the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say 
unto thee. Arise, and take up thy bed, and go 
thy way into thine house. And immediately 
he arose, took up the bed, and went forth be- 
fore them all; insomuch that they were all 
amazed, and glorified Grod, saying. We never 
saw it on this fashion." 

I wish we could get groups of fours who 
would join together in uniting their influence 
in bringing their friends to Christ, Mr. Moody 
says that such a combination of influence will 
nearly always win a man to the Lord. And 
it seems reasonable. Suppose a man when he 
gets up in the morning should hear his wife 
saying to him in tearful earnestness, " Dear, I 
am greatly concerned about your soul." When 
he goes down-stairs, his daughter meets him 
and tells him she is praying for his conver- 
sion. After breakfast, his son follows him to 
the door and says, " Papa, I do wish you were 
a Christian." When he gets to his private 
ofl&ce, one of his most trusted business asso- 



CHRIST THE PABDON-BEINGEB. 



233 



elates calls on him and asks him to yield to 
Grod. " That man,'^ says Mr. Moody, " would 
probably surrender that day.'^ 

But it is not this interesting story nor the 
important suggestion about our own soul-win- 
ning to which I wish particularly to call your 
attention at this time, but rather to empha- 
size the gTeat central fact that Jesus Christ is 
the Pardon-Bringer from God to this world, 
and that he still " has jDOwer on earth to for- 
give sins." jSTo matter how the message comes 
to men, if they get it into their hearts that 
Christ has power to save them, and turn to 
him with penitence and faith, the divine par- 
don is always sure. There is in New York a 
Bible which changed the wicked and heathen 
Pitcairn Islanders to peaceable and sweet- 
natured Christians. A vagabond and an out- 
cast, by name John Adams, fleeing from the 
English government because of his crimes, had 
among the neglected things at the bottom of 
his trunk a Bible which his Christian mother 
had given him when he was a boy. He had not 
looked at it for thirty years ; but one day he 
brought it out, and as a matter of curiosity 
began to read it aloud to some of the natives. 
The Holy Book changed his life and theirs. A 
few months later the island was found by a 



234: CHRIST THE FABBON-BBINGEM, 

Nantucket whaler, and since that time it has 
been frequently visited. Through that forgot- 
ten Bible, which brought the mercy and pardon 
of Jesus Christ, it is to-day a happy Christian 
community. 

All the fitness Jesus requires of those who 
desire the forgiveness of their sins is what he 
required of the sick whom he healed — that 
they shall feel their need of him. " A broken 
and a contrite heart " never fails in its plea at 
the feet of Christ. Such a heart as had Job 
when he said : " I have heard of thee by the 
hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seeth 
thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent 
in dust and ashes." Or as David had when he 
said : " I acknowledge my transgressions : and 
my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee 
only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy 
sight." A heart like that which throbbed in 
Ezra's breast when he said : " I am ashamed 
and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God." 
The young Isaiah had this same contrition of 
spirit when he said : " Woe is me ! for I am 
undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, 
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean 
lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the 
Lord of hosts." The publican who met the 
approval of Jesus had such a heart — he who 



CHRIST THE PAEDOK-BBINGEB. 235 

smote upon his breast and said : " God be mer- 
ciful to me a sinner ! ^' And if you feel that 
you are a sinner against God, you need not 
wait to try to make yourself more presentable 
at the mercy seat. That very consciousness 
of your great need is your strongest appeal, 
and if you will come as you are, Christ will 
at once receive you, as he did the man sick 
of the palsy, and say : " Thy sins be forgiven 
thee." 

We cannot purchase our salvation by good 
works. It is characteristic of all the highest 
and holiest things that they cannot be pur- 
chased by money, or indeed in any other way. 
The best things cannot be bought, for they 
are never for sale. True friendship, genuine 
love, inspiring hope, courageous faith — none 
of these things are in the market. Hence we 
have to take salvation as a free gift of God, 
and the only return we can make is our love 
and our serAi.ce given in the spirit of love and 
because we love him. 

There was a ripple of excitement, not long 
ago, in an orphan asylum, because a beautiful 
and wealthy woman had come in her carriage 
to take away one of the inmates, a little girl 
named Jane, whom she had adopted as her 
daughter. Jane herself was bewildered with 



236 CHBIST THE PAEBON-BEINGEB. 

the tlionglit. The kind matron led her down 
the wide stairway, and as she passed the hall 
door she saw the shining carriage, the fine 
horses, the liveried servants, and it seemed 
like a dream. 

" I hope she is glad to go," said the great 
lady, in a gentle tone. " Do you want to go 
home with me and be my child, my dear?" 

" I don't know," said Jane, timidly. 

"But I am going to give you beautiful 
clothes, and a gold ring, and a box of candy, 
and books, and dolls, and blocks, and a swing. 
Now do you want to go ? " 

" I don't know," said the child, still fright- 
ened. 

" You shall have a little room of your own, 
with a beautiful bed, and table, and chair ; 
you shall have a bird in a cage, and a little 
dog with a silver collar. Don't you want to 
go with me, Jane ? " 

There was a moment's silence, and then the 
little one said anxiously : " But what am I to do 
for all this?" 

The lady burst into tears. " Only to love 
me and be my child," she said, and in a mo- 
ment their arms were around each other. 

All the wealth of the universe belongs to 
Grod ; our lives are in his hand. We can- 
not pay him for salvation. He finds us poor 



CHRIST THE FABBON-BBINGEE. 237 



orphans, defiled by our sins, and he takes us 
into his own family and gives us the name of 
Christ as a badge of glory, not only forgiving 
all our past offences, but dwelling in our 
hearts by the Holy Spirit, comforting us in 
all the trials of life, and inspiring us with the 
hope of an inheritance incorruptible and full 
of glory. And all that it is possible for us to 
do in return is to give him our love and 
openly confess that love and gratitude before 
all the world. How strange it is that we 
should ever hesitate for a moment when asked 
to do that! If hitherto, not seeing it in its 
proper light, and not recognizing in Jesus 
the " altogether lovely " being he is, you have 
withheld from him the affection which his 
love merits and the open confession which 
alone can be worthy of you, I appeal to you 
now to change your neglect and refusal into a 
willing surrender of your heart and life to him. 

There is a very pretty story told of how 
Henry M. Stanley wooed and won Miss Doro- 
thy Tennant. Miss Tennant, it is well-known, 
was the original of Sir John Millais's famous 
picture, " Yes or No ? " On Stanley's return 
as the founder of the Congo State, he met 
Miss Tennant, became very deeply attached 
to her, and asked her to be his wife; but the 
reply was, " No." 



238 CHBIST THE PAEDON-BEIJS GEE. 

He went to Africa again, and was gone 
for several years on his tour in search of 
Emin Pasha. When he returned to London 
he was for the time the most famous man of 
his day. The thought of Miss Tennant was still 
uppermost in his mind, and he resolved that 
his first visit should be to her home. In his 
impatience for the morrow, when he could 
call, he turned over the cards and notes of 
invitation with which the table was strewn, 
and selecting one haphazard, decided to while 
away the time by attending a certain recep- 
tion. The first person he met there was Miss 
Tennant. They greeted each other formally, 
but later in the evening Stanley retired to a 
small anteroom, only to find that Miss Ten- 
nant had likewise sought solitude. A some- 
what embarrassing silence ensued, broken at 
last by the woman saying with the manner of 
one " making conversation : 

"Do you find London much changed, Mr. 
Stanley?" 

" No ; I haven't found London changed, and 
I have not changed, either," returned the ex- 
plorer, with his usual courage. "Have you 
changed ! " 

"Yes; I've changed," answered Miss Ten- 
nant, softly. 



CHEIST THE PABDON-BniNGEB. 239 

A few days later Millais, who had long be- 
fore painted her into his famous picture, 
received a note from his former subject, 
beginning : " My dear Sir John : The mo- 
mentous question has been at last decided. 
It is a joyful and triumphant ' Yes ! ' ^ 

Jesus Christ has been long wooing your 
soul; he speaks of himself often as the 
Bridegroom, to express the tenderness which 
he feels for us and the love with which he 
seeks to win us. And you have turned away 
from his love, and have grieved his heart, 
and refused him again and again. I pray 
that the Holy Spirit may now cause you to 
so see him in all his wondrous beauty and 
glory that you shall change from your atti- 
tude of neglect and refusal and give to 
your divine Lord a joyful and triumphant 
acceptance ! 

Do not, I beg of you, wait for some over- 
whelming tide of feeling that will break down 
your power to resist. It may never come to 
you. Grod has given you your will and your 
power of choice, and you ought to choose to 
stand on the Lord's side because it is the 
right side and it is your duty to be there, 
and because your safety and happiness and 
peace for time and eternity depend upon 



240 CHEIST THE FABDON-BBINGEE. 

your being there. How weak it seems, when 
there is so much at stake, when your eternal 
destiny may hang upon your decision, for you 
still to say, " I must wait till I feel more like 
it." It is not feeling that you need, but deci- 
sion, and every hour you neglect your duty 
makes it harder to decide to do it. 

Dr. George C. Wilding, now of Jersey City, 
told me that he once went to speak to two 
young ladies who were standing together, 
while others were pressing forward to the 
altar to seek Christ. He earnestly pleaded 
with them to accept Jesus. One of them 
yielded at once, and, as she started, said : " I 
cannot possibly stay away from Christ any 
longer." The other girl, looking after her as 
she went, turned to Dr. Wilding, and said, 
with a look of decision in her face : " I could 
stay away from Christ, but I must noV^ And 
she, too, went down the aisle and bowed at 
the mercy seat beside her friend. There are 
many of you who have that same feeling that 
you are able to resist the Spirit which draws 
you to Christ; but oh, my friend, you must 
not do it, at the peril of your eternal salva- 
tion ! Choose Christ a,nd his peace, with all 
that it means in this life and in the next, and 
it will be a glorious victory for your soul ! 



THE LORD OF PEACE. 



^* The Lord of peace himself give you peace always." — 
2 Thess, iii. 16. 

Nothing in the world is so common as 
trouble. It is knocking at our doors early 
and late, from youth to old age. It is a 
world full of strife, full of unrest, and multi- 
tudes go up and down the highways of life 
crying out in their anguish, or, like the man 
from the tombs in the country of the Gada- 
renes, go raving in the wildness of theii' de- 
spair. The secret of the trouble of the world 
is sin. Not that all men who have trouble 
to-day have it because of their own sin : but 
sin has demoralized the world; it has sown 
the seeds of disease and pain and strife and 
war and crime of every sort in the fertile 
fields of the human heart. 

Strange it is that while all the world seems 
so full of unrest and trouble everybody is 

241 



242 THE LOED OF FEACE. 

seeking after peace. The men who are the 
most reckless in their sins are also planning 
and scheming how they may find peace. The 
man who drinks the baleful glass which is 
destroying all possibilities of happiness in his 
life is often trying to drown his conscience 
and his sorrow and thns find peace. Many 
a man whips himself over the track in a wild 
race for wealth, stopping not at dishonesty 
and wickedness to attain his end, because he 
imagines that in wealth there is peace. 

There is only one Lord of peace, and that is 
Jesus Christ our Saviour. He who spake to 
the troubled waves of the little Sea of Galilee, 
" Peace, be still ! " and there was a great calm, 
is the only one who is able to speak to the 
troubled waves of the human soul and bring 
peace out of its chaotic turmoil. 

It is impossible that a sinful soul should 
have peace. The striking illustrations that 
are used in the Bible to make clear the char- 
acter of sin and its effects make it very plain 
that there can be no peace without sin being 
cast out. It is said of Cain that sin made him 
a vagabond on the earth. A vagabond cannot 
have peace. He is an outcast; fears pursue 
him from behind; danger and starvation 
threaten him in the future ; memories of hap- 



THE LOBD OF PEACE. 



243 



pier days rise up to distress him. The vaga- 
bond is in the very nature of things restless 
and uneasy and beyond the possibility of 
peace. If we could gather all the vagabonds 
of sin here to-night, — but, alas ! there is no 
church or hall that would hold them, — every 
one that was honest would testify that when 
sin drove him out from innocency and from 
communion with G-od and put its brand of 
evil habit upon him, and he became a vaga- 
bond from purity of life and purpose, peace 
forsook him. There may have been hours of 
revel and debauch ; hours of stupor and indif- 
ference ; hours of recklessness and presump- 
tion ; but among them all not one single hour 
of peace. 

David compares sin to a fire in his bones ; 
there is no peace in a lawless fire, whether it 
be ravaging on a dwelling, or a storehouse, or 
in the heart of a man. It means disorder and 
pain and anguish. Sin is a fire which, unless 
quenched by the Lord of peace, will burn for- 
ever. The story is told of McCheyne, the 
famous Scotch preacher, that on one of his 
evangelistic tours through the Highlands of 
Scotland, after preaching one Sunday morn- 
ing, he rode on several miles to a small town, 
hoping to have an opportunity to arouse the 



244 



THE LOBB OF PEACE. 



people to earnestness and pluck some souls 
as brands from the burning. Arriving in the 
little town, he went to the house of the only 
minister, and asked if he might preach for 
him at the afternoon service, but was told that 
there would be no more services that day, and 
that the people were widely scattered through 
the country. 

"Will you not summon them to hear me 
preach by ringing the bell?" McCheyne 
asked. 

" If you were to do that," the minister an- 
swered, " they would think there was a fire." 

" But it is a case of fire," said McCheyne, 
gravely ; " the fire that is never quenched." 

The astonished preacher rang the bell, and 
the people gathered from all over the country 
in haste, and that man on fire with the Holy 
Spirit spoke to them of the danger of the fire 
of sin, as though a live coal from God's altar 
had touched his lips. 

On another occasion, McCheyne was riding 
along the road on horseback when he came to 
a blacksmith's forge. He pulled in his horse, 
alighted, and went up to the blacksmith, who 
was using his bellows to fan the flame, and 
said solemnly : " What does that fire remind 
you of ? " Without saying another word he re- 



THE LOBD OF PEACE. 



245 



mounted his horse and rode away, but it was the 
arrow of Grod that went straight to the heart 
of the blacksmith and aroused him to great 
conviction of sin which led to his salvation. 
So I urge upon you that sin is not to be tam- 
pered with ; it is a fire burning at the very 
heart of life. 

In the prophecy of Isaiah sin is compared 
to mire and dirt which the sea is forever cast- 
ing up, showing that peace is impossible so 
long as the sin is there. " Peace, peace to him 
that is far off, and to him that is near, saith 
the Lord; and I will heal him. But the 
wicked are like the troubled sea, when it can- 
not rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. 
There is no peace, saith my God, to the 
wicked." The ocean cannot rest because it is 
at the mercy of the winds and may be lashed 
into fury by a storm sweeping over its surface 
at any time. It is like that with the man or 
woman who depends upon outward circum- 
stances for peace. While all things are pro- 
pitious they may have much joy and gladness, 
but a storm is likely to sweep over their sea 
at any time, and then, if they have no 
other som^ce of happiness, they are the most 
wretched of beings. 

I knew two merchants who lived side by 



246 



THE LOEB OF PEACE. 



side on the same street. For many years they 
had both been prosperous men — had made 
money, had a good position in the business 
world, stood well socially, were happily mar- 
ried, and had pleasant families of children. 
Suddenly, in the stringency of hard times which 
almost came to be a panic, both of these men 
lost very largely, and it was evident that their 
fortunes had taken wings and flown away. At 
fifty years of age they must start in again. 

One of them was a Christian, and the other 
was not. The man who was not a Christian 
came home in the evening and went up-stairs 
as if to dress for dinner. When he did not 
return, his daughter went to call him, and 
found him dying the death of a suicide from 
poison he had swallowed. What tongue could 
ever describe the sorrow and anguish and 
unrest that drove that poor man from the tor- 
tures of earth to the tortures of eternal re- 
morse, or describe the distress left behind 
him among those who loved him so dearly? 

The Christian merchant was obliged to give 
up his great store, and his family moved out 
of their fine house; but his manhood was all 
left. He took a place as a clerk in another 
store, and rented a small house. His Christian 
wife and children loyally gathered around 



THE LOED OF PEACE, 



247" 



him. He was in his place in church the same 
as ever ; his testimony in the prayer-meeting 
expressed, if anything, a little more sweetness, 
and there was more comfort in it than ever to 
the listeners who knew the brave struggle he 
was making and saw the peace of God in his 
face. 

That is the contrast between the sonl which 
depends on circumstances for its peace and 
the one reljdng on him who is Lord of peace 
and over whom circumstances have no control. 
As some one has said, it makes a vast differ- 
ence into what well we let down our bucket. 
If it is the well of worldliness, no matter how 
abundant it may seem in days of prosperity, 
it is likely at any time to go dry; but if we 
draw out of the wells of salvation, there will 
be plenty of water all the year round and 
abundance for all the seasons of human life. 
And as the well on the mountain-side seems to 
give forth water more cool and refreshing on 
the summer day, when the heat parches the 
surface of the earth most and makes the stag- 
nant pools that lie in the sun lukewarm and 
distasteful, so the water from the wells of sal- 
vation IS more than ever refreshing and satis- 
fying in those experiences which try men's 
souls. 



^48 THE LOUD OF PEACE, 



The secret of a peace which never changes 
is a communion and fellowship with him who 
is the Lord of peace. We cannot fail to have 
peace if we rest ourselves in his arms, and 
know that our lives are pleasing to him. Cold 
as it has been these last few days, if at any 
time you had held the bulb of a thermometer 
in your hand until it became warm, you would 
have seen the mercury shoot up to summer 
heat. Worldliness and sin freeze the heart, 
but if we give our hearts into the keeping of 
Christ our Saviour, the warmth of that hea- 
venly climate in which he dwells will come with 
its own sunshine and summer into our souls. 

The ocean cannot rest not only because of 
wind and storm, but also because the mire and 
clay and the multitude of things forever drifting 
into it are always being cast up. A sinful soul 
is like that. Memory will not let the sinner 
rest. He may forget for a time, as the ocean 
is sometimes peaceful and quiet and its waters 
clear; but the tide is likely at any time to 
bring up the mire and the clay from the depths. 
So long as there is sin in one's heart, Grod may 
cast it up at any moment. As Frederick 
Robertson says, this is the misery of remorse 
— the worst torment of man's stormy mind. 
For after a while, when the body which some- 



THE LOEB OF PEACE. 



249 



times now causes ns to forget the sins of the 
soul shall pass away, there will begin the 
eternity of a hell of recollection — when every 
act of bygone guilt which has not been sunk 
in the blood of Christ shall be as fresh and 
vivid before a sinner's eyes as it was at the 
moment when it was committed. 

The Lord of peace proposes to give us peace 
by taking the mire and dirt of sin out of our 
hearts. A clean heart may have peace. John 
Ruskin says: "Make yourselves nests of 
pleasant thoughts." A man can have no 
such nesting-place in his heart if he is con- 
scious that he is a sinner. From such a heart 
there must always come up thoughts that are 
like ghosts which frighten their victim out 
of all possibility of peace. But a Christian 
heart that has pleasant memories of Grod's 
great goodness, of his sweet loving-kindness, 
that treasures up happy recollections of the 
forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and 
of self-sacrificing fellowship with him, is a 
nesting-place of thoughts and meditations that 
are ever happy and full of peace. 

We may be absolutely certain that in all 
worlds sin and sorrow must in the long run be 
joined together. The wicked soul cannot 
have peace. Some of you to whom I speak 



250 



THE LOED OF PEACE. 



have no peace because of your sins. Pleasure 
you have sometimes, but deep, abiding peace, 
in which the soul nestles in perfect repose, which 
thinks upon death and eternity with composure 
and courage and joy — of that you know no- 
thing, and can know nothing until your sins are 
blotted out and the Lord of peace has healed 
your unrest. Thank God, you may know that 
peace, and you may know it now ! Zacchseus 
had no peace until Christ came to visit him, 
but that very hour salvation came to his house. 
The poor demoniac had no peace till he met 
Christ, but then he sat clothed and in his right 
mind. The disciples on the storm-tossed sea 
had no peace until Jesus came, and then all 
was calm. The same Lord of peace is here, 
ready to speak peace to your soul, ready to bid 
hate and anger and lust and evil appetite and 
sinful desires begone, as he cast out the devils 
from the tormented souls in the days of his 
earthly life. He is ready to speak peace to 
every warring element in your heart — to say 
to your doubts and fears, "Peace, be still." 
What shall be your answer to-night ? Shall 
it be peace, or no ? 



THE KEEPING CHRIST. 



But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and 
keep you from evil.'' — 2 TJiess. iii. 3. 

In the defence of a fortress a great deal 
depends upon the sentinel. If the sentinel is 
treacherous, and at heart an enemy, he may 
be able to give over the entire fortress into 
the hands of the foe. If he is indifferent and 
careless, he may sleep on gnard or be other- 
wise so negligent that the result will be as 
bad as if he were treacherous in purpose. A 
weak man, who can be easily deceived or im- 
posed upon, may also prove fatal to the safety 
of the garrison. A fortress situated in an 
enemy's country sleeps in peace only when 
the sentinels are trusted men, men who are 
alert, intelligent and experienced, and whose 
fidelity can be relied upon. It is a picture 
like that which Paul presents to us here. He 
writes to these Thessalonians that Christ is a 

251 



252 



THE KEEPING CHBIST. 



faithful sentinel who will keep guard over 
them with sleepless vigilance, and protect 
them from all evil. It is a very striking pic- 
ture, I think, and one that certainly appeals 
to the condition in which we find ourselves in 
this world. It enlarges, too, our conception 
of Jesus Christ, if we have been thinking of 
him only, or in most part, as the One who ' 
came to bear our sins in his own body on the 
cross and to open up a divine way for our 
salvation. It is comforting to think of him 
also as the One who has conquered death, 
who has come of£ triumphant over the grave, 
and is living to-day to keep faithful watch 
over the hearts of those who have accepted 
his offer of salvation. 

It is a very common thing for people who are 
deeply convicted of sin, and are moved upon 
by the Holy Spirit to accept Christ, to give as 
an excuse for neglecting to render him obe- 
dience and open confession the danger of not 
being able to live up to the profession they 
would make. To any such there is here a 
message of peculiar interest; for the same 
Christ who died to redeem you, and who * 
stands knocking at the door of your heart, 
desiring to enter in as your friend and Sa- 
viour, is presented by Paul, who had tested 



THE KEEPING CHRIST, 



253 



Jlim so thoroughly, as one who will stablish 
you in every good way, who will not only 
start you on the way heavenward with a clean 
heart and a right spirit, but will keep you from 
evil. And this which Paul has said of Christ, 
all sincere Christians know to be true. I ven- 
ture the assertion that there does not live on 
the earth to-day a man who was once a genu- 
ine Christian, who has fallen back into sin, 
who is both intelligent and honest, who will 
not confess that the cause of his falling was 
the taking of his life out of the hand of Christ, 
his refusing to yield his heart to be governed 
by the Saviour. Of course a man does not 
lose his free will by becoming a Christian. 
He still has the power to choose, and it is 
as possible for him to turn Christ out of his 
heart as it is for you to turn your best friend 
out of your home and grieve the one who 
loves you most. Every honest backslider will 
admit that so long as he trusted Christ and 
obeyed him he did keep him from e\ul, and 
that it was only when, by wilful sin, or by 
wilful neglect of prayer and trust in Christ, 
he grieved away the Saviour, that he lost 
the experience of his divine presence. 

Christ keeps us by taking possession of the 
central fortress of a human life, the heart, 



254 



THE KEEPING CHBIST. 



where imaginations and purposes are formed, 
filling it with good thoughts and holy pur- 
poses so that there is no room left for the old 
schemings and plottings of evil. This a man 
often leaves out of account when balancing 
the possibilities of his living a Christian life. 
A man says : " My thoughts and imaginations 
are not only not Christian, but are often de- 
cidedly unchristian. I have many good im- 
pulses, and fondly imagine I am going to do 
right, but the first thing I know I am caught 
in the grip of some strong temptation to do 
wrong, and all my resolutions go for naught." 
A man fails to recognize, when he talks like 
that, that the moment he surrenders his will 
to Christ a new power comes upon the throne 
of his life. It is not a negative life to which 
I call you. I am not asking you simply to 
make a new resolution not to do wrong, that 
would, no doubt, be as hopeless as a thousand 
others you have broken. I am asking some- 
thing very different. It is that you shall in- 
vite the Lord J esus Christ to come into your 
heart with the cleansing power of his pres- 
ence. You have felt many times the power 
of the presence of some people to smother 
out bad thoughts in you. Many a young man 
who has gone into sinful indulgences would 



THE KEEPING CHEIST. 



255 



never go there again if in order to go his pure 
mother must go with him. You have seen 
people the very atmosphere about whom was 
so positively and strongly good that when you 
were with them in close association it seemed 
as though anything that was good would be 
easy to perform, and low and groveling 
thoughts were never so vulgar and hateful to 
you as when you were with them. Sometimes 
you say within yourself : If I could only live 
in intimate association with such pure souls, 
goodness would be as natural as the air I 
breathe, and I could overcome all my sins." 
Now, the truth is that what you have felt in 
these saintly souls is only a faint reflection of 
what you would feel if you were to come into 
close fellowship with Jesus Christ himself. 
The moment you yield your heart to him in 
obedience, according to his promise he will 
come into your heart and into your life, and 
will give you holy thoughts and noble desires 
and good purposes. 

The Lord keeps our hearts from evil not by 
keeping us always standing on monotonous 
guard duty for fear we will do wrong. If that 
were all, it would be an awful drudgery. But 
he thrusts us out into the doing of positively 
good things, on a career of usefulness in fel- 



256 



THE KEEPING CHEIST. ^ 



lowship with himself, and makes all our com- 
mon life seem sacred and hallowed with the 
beauty of his presence. The kind deed we do 
for the weak we do in his name ; and there is 
a new joy in it when we feel that, whatever 
lack of gratitude there may be in the one for 
whom we do the kindly act, the glorious Christ 
receives the service at our hands as though we 
did it for him personally. In the doing of 
good things we are established and strength- 
ened and made to rejoice. The useful life is 
always the happy life. To know that we glad- 
den others, that we are living such lives that 
if people follow our example they are not 
led astray, but are conducted safely toward 
heaven, is in itself a wonderfully comforting 
thing. Christ puts us forward — not only 
ministers, but the newest convert — as his 
representatives, and to feel that in the small- 
est way we are standing in Jesus' stead to 
win men away from their sorrows and their 
sins, and lead them toward new courage and 
strength and heaven, is a marvelous help in 
keeping us from evil. 

Christ keeps us from evil associations, or, if 
duty calls us into them, he gives us the inner 
power to resist them. He keeps us from 
forming evil associations for our own pleasure, 



THE KEEPING CHEIST. 



257 



because we no longer have pleasure in those 
things that we feel would be displeasing to 
Christ. People before they become Christians 
often think a great deal, and some talk a great 
deal, about the things they would have to give 
up in order to be open and consistent disciples 
of Jesus Christ ; but I have never heard of 
an earnest and sincere soul who after having 
given the whole heart up to Christ in love and 
devotion had any such trouble. Christ doesn't 
ask us to give up anything that gives us joy 
and pleasure unless it is something that harms 
us, or harms our neighbors ; and when we love 
Christ and have the happiness of knowing 
that he loves us, we no longer desire to do 
anything that will giieve him. We all know 
what this means in common life ; Every one 
of us has friends who are so dear, and whose 
happiness we hold so jealously, that we often 
change our conduct because of their plea- 
sure? And we do not think it a hard thing 
to do, because the knowledge of giving plea- 
sure to one we love changes our very desire 
and purpose. You have only to lift that up 
into the higher sphere to see that when we 
have given our hearts to Christ, and he has 
forgiven our sins, and wrapped us about with 
hjB love, nothing could be more bitter to us 



258 



THE KEEPING CHRIST. 



than to do the things that would grieve him or 
bring reproach on his name. 

Christ keeps us by the presence of the Holy 
Spirit, who dwells in our hearts and who shines 
upon the Bible and makes it an altogether dif- 
ferent book to us. It is impossible that an 
unconverted man or woman should think 
about or enjoy reading the Bible as does one 
who has given his heart to Christ and looks 
upon it as the treasure store of information 
concerning his Heavenly Father and his Sa- 
viour. Perhaps some of you say: "I have 
never had any pleasure in reading the Bible ; 
it is not an interesting book to me, and I don't 
see how it could be of any help in this rugged 
every-day life of mine in keeping me from 
evil.'' But when once you have turned away 
from your sins and surrendered your will to 
Grod, the Holy Spirit will make the Bible the 
sweetest book in the world to you. I think a 
little reflection will make this seem very natu- 
ral. Here is a man who has no fancy for legal 
papers ; the formalities and rather stiff rhet- 
oric of such documents are repulsive to him ; 
and he says : " I don't see how a man could be 
a lawyer and willing to spend his time read- 
ing wills and things of that sort." But some 
day a man comes along and tells him that a 



THE KEEPING CHBIST. 



259 



will has just been offered for probate in which 
he is named as an heir to a great inheritance ; 
that the sum which is coming to him is large 
enough to set him free from his poverty and 
give him all the enjoyment of riches. Do you 
not think that all his repugnance to wills and 
legal documents would vanish in a moment ? 
The phraseology of the wiU which granted 
him his inheritance would become to him the 
most interesting bit of literature in the world. 
The reason is that his personal attitude is en- 
tirely changed. He is an heir, and it is imder 
this will that the property is described and 
guaranteed. Have you ever thought what 
those words mean — the Old Testament and 
the Neiv Testament f And have you compared 
them with the phraseology of wills in convey- 
ing inheritances ? In a will a man usually 
writes of it as his last will and testaments So 
the Bible, Old and Xew, is Grod's will toward us. 
It tells all about the story of our family ; it 
tells of its riches, of its sins, of its sorrows, of 
its bankruptcy and poverty ; but, thank God ! 
it tells us also of him who came to redeem us 
and bring us back again to the wealth and 
glory of heaven. 

The moment you give your heart to Christ 
you become an heir to treasm^es of immortal 



260 



THE KEEPING CHBIST. 



value under conditions set forth in these Tes- 
taments of God. How sweet to your heart all 
the promises of that Book will then be, and 
what power they will have to keep you in 
comfort and in peace! Listen to some of 
them : " All things work together for good to 
them that love God." " My God shall supply 
all your need according to his riches in glory 
by Christ Jesus." " There is therefore now 
no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
Jesus." " Let not j^our heart be troubled. • . . 
In my Father's house are many mansions. » . . 
I go to prepare a place for you. ... I will 
come again, and receive you unto myself ; that 
where I am, there ye may be also." " Hold 
that fast which thou hast, that no man take 
thy crown." " Him that overcometh will I 
make a pillar in the temple of my God, and 
he shall go no more out : and I will write upon 
him the name of my God, and the name of the 
city of my God, which is New Jerusalem, which 
cometh down out of heaven from my God: 
and I will write upon him my new name." 

The more you read this Holy Word with 
this new sense of ownership in it, the more 
you will be drawn out in prayer and conver- 
sation with Christ, until you will become con- 
scious constantly that the presence of Christ 



The keeping cheist. 



261 



abides in your heart and in your life. You 
will feel that he is never far from you, but is 
more real to you and more surely present than 
any other friend. Oh, my friend, he is able 
to keep yon. All about you are men and wo- 
men who can bear testimony to the power of 
Christ to keep. He has rescued many of them 
from the power of wicked habits ; has cleansed 
them from impure imaginations; has taken 
their feet from wicked ways; has brought 
them up on to the Highway of Holiness, and 
though lions may sometimes have growled 
along the path, no ravenous beast has ever 
met them on that holy way. 

But have you reflected that you who are so 
fearful about being kept after you become 
Christians are entirely unprotected now? 
Every day you live in sin the sentence of 
God's broken law hangs over your head. A 
man does not have to wait until the judg- 
ment to be condemned. If he is an unpar- 
doned sinner, he is condemned now. Is it 
not strange for you, about whose head every 
dart of e\dl is hurled, with no shield to ward 
them off, with no armor to protect you, to 
allow the de^dl to deceive you into doubting 
Christ's power to keep you and save you ? 
Christ never yet broke his word with a human 



262 



THE KEEPING CHBIST. 



soul, and if yon will trnst him, yon will be 
able to say with Panl : " I know whom I have 
believed, and am persnaded that he is able 
to keep that which I have committed to him 
against that day." 



THE HEEOIC CHRIST. 



*^The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad 
rivers and streams ; wherein shall go no galley with 
oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the 
Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is 
our king; he will save us." — Isa, xxxiii. 21, 22. 

This is a picture, seen in prophetic vision, 
of the triumph that Jesns Christ is to have 
in the world. The campaign which is to end 
in that victory is now on, and we have om^ 
part in it. It presents Christ to us as ^'the 
glorious Lord," and predicts that he shall go 
on " conquering and to conquer " until no 
slave-ship shall be left in the world, for that 
is what is meant by a " galley with oars." 
And what is still more startling, it is boldly 
predicted that the time shall come when he 
shall have driven all the " gallant ships " — 
that is, the war-vessels of the world — off 
the seas. 

There is something splendid in the audacity 

263 



264 



THE HEBOtC CHBIST. 



^nd daring of these prophecies concerning 
Christ, which was fully borne out by his own 
attitude while on earth, and the progress of 
his influence in the world in the nearly two 
thousand years that have passed since his 
death and resurrection. The world is fond of 
heroes, and Christ is its greatest hero. Hero- 
ism of the highest sort demands the giving 
up of one's own personal comfort and ease — 
indeed, the risking of one's whole personality 
— for a high and worthy purpose. We have 
just been witnessing in this country an illus- 
tration of hero-worship with that sort of a 
basis. The crowds have flocked to see Nan- 
sen, the arctic explorer, not simply because 
he had gone farther north than any one else, 
but because of the innate heroism of the man 
in giving himself up to an idea. One cannot 
read Nansen's books without feeling that in 
all those years of drifting through the ice- 
seas of the arctic he would much rather have 
died than that his theory should prove to be 
false. He was never thinking about freezing, 
or moaning over his own sufferings, or worry- 
ing about dying; his whole thought was on 
the success or the failure of the expedition. 
His great anxiety was that his theory should 
be proved correct. The supreme aim and ob- 



THE HEHOIC C HEIST. 



265 



ject of his life for the time being was entirely 
outside of himself. It is this rising ahove the 
personal attitude into the nobler struggle for 
the benefit of the race that makes the hero. 

Nansen is an illustration, living and vital, 
of the fact that all the great things that are 
done in the world are accomplished by faith. 
Though not especially in this matter a hero of 

the faith," this viking explorer is as much 
a hero of faith as Abraham was. On his faith 
in his theory concerning the arctic currents 
he risked everything that was dear to him in 
the world. He committed himself absolutely 
to the faith that if his ship was once locked 
in polar ice, it would drift for a while toward 
the pole, and afterward away from it, into 
open waters. He burned every bridge of 
safety behind him when he gave himself up, 
absolutely, to his great faith. The world 
crowns him a hero because he counted his 
life not dear unto himself when his faith was 
at stake. 

Christ is the matchless hero of humanity. 
Nansen had the scientists of the world largely 
against him, but Christ had all the world 
against him. All men's sins, all their preju- 
dices, all the trend of wicked habits, all 
respectability, all government, all the world 



266 



THE HEBOIO CUBIST. 



frowned on him. Herod songht him in his 
babyhood with a bloody sword. The very 
church to which he came to bring larger 
light hnnted him with bitter cruelty to the 
death. And yet this Nazarene peasant with 
no human power to back him, with no gov- 
ernment on his side, with no newspapers to 
extend his views, with no friends except the 
poor and despised, deliberately set himself to 
fulfill this prophecy and others like it. 

We want to catch this spirit of Christ. We 
are not in the world as the disciples of Jesus 
to stand abashed before or make compromises 
with any evil thing. The Christian church 
has been so slow in making progress through- 
out the world simply because so many of its 
members, and often its leaders, have left the 
sublime and heroic faith of their glorious 
Lord. If a thing is evil it is doomed in this 
world. All slavery is to cease on the earth. 
No galley with oars " is to be left to run its 
piratical way. We are easily scared by a 
great show of physical force, but that is only 
because we lack faith in Christ and fail to 
appreciate the power of ideas to break down 
and disintegrate physical forces. There never 
was a period in the history of African slavery 
when it was so boastful, or so confident of 



THE HEROIC C HEIST, 



267 



wider dominion, as it was less than ten 
years before the Emancipation Proclamation 
of Abraham Lincoln. It was intrenched in 
wealth; intrenched in State and national 
government; intrenched everywhere but in 
righteousness. But steadily there grew np 
in the hearts of men a feeling that it was 
wrong, and this conviction deepened and 
gathered force until slavery was smitten to 
the death. 

Every other evil thing that is hmifnl to 
mankind and which brings humanity into 
bondage will go down before the widening 
sway of Jesus Christ. We have been having 
an ebb-tide in the war against the liquor 
traffic, and for the last few years the liquor 
influence has been stronger in politics and 
in government and more intrenched in wealth 
than ever before. Many earnest Christian 
people who see clearly the despoiling of hu- 
man life by this vile traffic, and whose ears 
are keen to hear the heartbreaking moans 
that come up from desolate homes and 
blighted lives, have been, and are, greatly 
discouraged. But we have no reason to be 
discouraged. Lincoln once said about sla- 
very, " If slavery is not wrong, then nothing 
is wrong.'^ So I say that all distinction be- 



268 



THE HEROIC CHBIST. 



tween right and wong is but the babbling 
idiocy of a fool unless the liquor traffic is 
wrong. Being wrong, it is doomed; and up 
from this ebb-tide we shall see, in days that 
are near, the coming in of a wave for tem- 
perance and righteousness that will carry us 
far beyond anything the world has yet seen. 
"What we need is the spirit of Christ — the 
heroic spirit that will not crouch and cower 
before any evil because it has wealth and 
popularity or numbers on its side. Any man 
who is right, however humble he may seem, 
need never fear to plant his fist straight be- 
tween the eyes of anything that is evil, how- 
ever monstrous and giant-like it may appear. 

Christ has set out to capture this world. Its 
desert places are to have broad rivers ; its dry 
and parched uplands are to abound in springs 
and living streams. Already the human 
deserts of the world in the great lands of 
China, and India, and Africa are beginning to 
be touched by these living fountains, and it 
shall go on until the whole world of humanity 
is refreshed and saved by our Christ. 

All this seems possible to us when we are 
ourselves alive to the presence of Christ in our 
own hearts and personally engaged in bringing 
about the salvation of others at our own door. 



THE HEEOIC CHBIST, 



269 



If we lose the fire of divine life out of our own 
hearts it is easy to doubt the supernatural 
character of our gospel and its power to save 
the heathen. 

In New South Wales there was an old local 
preacher who had apparently outlived his use- 
fulness. He had lost the enthusiasm and 
fervor of his devotion to Christ. The super- 
intendent of the circuit at last went to inter- 
view the old man, when the following conver- 
sation ensued : 

" My brother, I wish you could see your way 
to retire from the plan." 

''How's that, sir?" asked the old man, in 
unfeigned surprise. 

" So many complaints reach me," said the 
superintendent, " that I fear I shall not be 
able to give you any more appointments." 
And then, after an embarrassing pause, he 
added: "Do you know what they call you, 
through the circuit ? " 

" No, sir," tremulously answered the old man. 

" They — call — you — old — Brother — Dry 
— Stick," slowly and with difficulty answered 
the superintendent. 

For a few moments the old man was like 
one paralyzed. Then, with tears raining 
down his furrowed cheeks, he pleaded to be 



270 



THE HEBOIC CHRIST. 



allowed to preach " just once more." The con- 
cession was granted. 

Away to his little room went that dry-as- 
dust old preacher. He wept and pleaded 
with God. He went again and again. Like 
Jacob at the Jabbok ford, he wrestled with 
God until his heart was strangely refreshed 
by the messenger from heaven. 

Still trembling and anxious, he went off to 
that strangest of trial sermons. The people 
who had come expecting to sleep or to be 
bored soon found that they had reckoned with- 
out their host. One after another they looked 
at the old man and then at each other with 
amazement. He seemed like a new being, and 
before long the audience was shaken with 
divine power. Tears took the place of criti- 
cism, and ere the service ended, sinning souls 
had sought and found forgiveness. It was so 
everywhere he went. " Old Dry Stick " became 
a flaming evangel throughout the country, 
and remained so until his translation. 

It is like that in our faith concerning the 
salvation of the world through J esus Christ. 
Show me a man whose heart is on fire with 
love for Christ, joyous because of his own sal- 
vation, and who is personally leading souls to 
Christ in his own neighborhood, and I will 



THE HEROIC C HEIST. 



271 



show you one who finds it easy to believe that 
Christ can and will capture China and India 
for the banner of the cross. 

It makes a great deal of difference in the 
carrying on of the church whether we do it 
with a painful sense of duty, as though we 
were carrying a burden, or in the heroic spirit 
of Jesus, finding it a joy because of the vic- 
tory our faith sees in the end. 

An eight-year-old child with a cut in her 
hand was brought to a physician. It was 
necessary for the best results to take a few 
stitches with a surgeon's needle. While the 
physician was making preparations the little 
girl swung her foot nervously against the chair, 
and was gently admonished by her mother. 

That will do no harm," said the doctor, 
kindly, as long as you hold your hand still ; " 
adding, with a glance at the strained, anxious 
face of the child : You may cry as much as 
you like." 

I would rather sing," replied the child. 

"All right; that would be better. What 
can you sing?" 

"I can sing ^"Grive, give," said the little 
stream.' Do you know that!" 

'^I am not sure," responded the doctor. 
" How does it begin ? " 



272 



THE HEBOIC CRBIST. 



The little patient proceeded to illustrate. 

"That's beautiful," said the doctor. "I 
want to hear the whole of it." 

All the while the skilled fingers were sew- 
ing up the wound the sweet, childish voice 
sounded bravely through the room, and the 
only tears shed on the occasion came from 
the eyes of the mother. 

I wish we might all do our Christian work in 
the singing, heroic spirit instead of the whining 
spirit. How much better it would illustrate and 
bear testimony to the character of Christ ! 

Christ has made it very certain that in self- 
forgetfulness, while carrying good cheer to 
the poorest and most needy of our fellows, we 
come into closest fellowship with him, and 
may often thus, unconsciously, do heroic 
deeds for which we shall receive his applause 
in the day of final accounting. 

A shoemaker whose name was Martin had 
a great longing to do some special service for 
Jesus Christ. One night, in a dream, he re- 
ceived the promise that the Saviour would 
visit him on the morrow. Martin's dwelling 
was a cellar, and his work-bench stood beside 
the low window, from which he saw nothing 
but the feet of those who passed by. He rose 
early in the morning, and at breakfast he said 



THE HE BO I C C HEIST. 



273 



with great joy to himself : " To-day the Lord 
Jesus will visit me." Looking up, he saw a 
pair of shabby feet wearily dragging them- 
selves past his window. Full of pity, he went 
out and found a poor woman, hungry and 
homeless, who had wandered about the streets 
all night long, carrjdng a sick babe in her 
arms. Martin took her into his dwelling, gave 
her the remnant of his breakfast, and fed the 
child with milk. When she had gone he again 
sat down to work, hoping that now the Lord 
Jesus would soon appear. About noon he 
saw another pair of tired feet shuffling past. 
Hurrying out, Martin found an old man who 
had not tasted food that day. He invited him 
in and shared his dinner with the hungry 
guest. When he had gone, Martin thought 
sadly: "The day half spent, and the Lord 
Jesus has not yet come." Toward evening 
he saw more feet in violent movement, hur- 
riedly flying hither and thither, and when he 
went out he found an old fruit-seller and a 
street-boy in a fierce fight. The woman 
clutched the sleeve of the boy's threadbare 
jacket and screamed: "He stole my apples, 
and I will beat him for it!" Martin made 
peace between them, and, finding that both 
were hungry, took them home and shared 



274 



THE HEM QIC CHBIST. 



with them his supper. The day being ended, 
he went to bed with a sad heart, for the Lord 
Jesus had not visited him, as it had been 
promised him in his dream. He slept, and 
again he dreamed. And behold, in his dream 
appeared first the tired woman and her sick 
child ; she looked into his eyes and said : "Mar- 
tin, dost thou know me ? " And the old man 
came, and the fruit-seller, and the poor boy, 
each asking : " Martin, dost thou know me ? " 
Then Martin understood, and he remembered 
the words of the Master : " Inasmuch as ye 
have done it unto one of the least of these 
my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

What a glorious thing it will be, when the 
privileges and opportunities of life are over 
and all earth's treasures shall have passed be- 
yond our grasp, to have our glorious Lord call 
up before us ransomed and redeemed spirits 
from China and India and Africa and Japan, 
as well as from the slums of our own cities, 
and say to us, as with astonished eyes we gaze 
upon these whom we do not remember ever 
to have seen before, but to whom, when we 
could not go, we cheerfully gave our money to 
send the messenger: "Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my 
brethren, ye have done it unto me." 



THE ANGEL IN THE GARDEN. 



" And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, 
strengthening him." — Luhe xxii. 43. 

The hours which Jesus spent in the Gardfen 
of Grethsemane on that fateful night of his 
arrest are overhung with mystery which will 
never lift for us until we are in that land of 
light where we shall know even as we are 
known. We can approach the scene only 
from the human side ; but it is fraught with 
the greatest interest when viewed from that 
standpoint. 

One of the most touching things connected 
with the evening's story is the illustration that 
is given us of the hunger of Jesus for human 
sympathy and fellowship. It stirs our hearts 
to the very depths as we see him coming again 
and again to tenderly and sadly arouse his 
sleeping friends to keep watch with him in 
his great agony. Nowhere does the tender- 
ness of Jesus shine forth more beautifully 

275 



276 THE ANGEL IN THE GABDEN. 

than in his gentle treatment of the disciples 
as they lift their sorrowful and shamed faces 
from their slumber as he speaks to them. 
We surely should find in this scene the 
assurance of Christ's personal joy in our 
devotion and service. It is still possible for 
us to watch with Jesus in alert and loving 
fidelity to his poor, whom he regards as his 
very self. Reflection on Christ's great sacri- 
fice for us, as illustrated in the drops of bloody 
sweat that rolled from his brow that awful 
night in the garden, cannot but inspire in our 
hearts grateful love. A member of the 
Knights Templars in Chicago was recently 
told by his physician that he would surely 
die unless some of his friends would con- 
sent to sacrifice sections of their healthy 
skin that it might be grafted upon his body, 
and forty members of his lodge volunteered 
to give their own flesh and blood for the 
healing of their friend and brother. It is 
said that the patient was not only filled with 
gratitude to these men, but regards every one 
of them with the most loving affection, con- 
sidering them the saviors of his life. How is 
it possible for us, who have received such testi- 
monies of the affection and sacrifice of Jesus 
in our behalf, to rescue us from sin and despair, 



THE ANGEL IK THE GABBEN, 277 

to fail to pour out our love and gratitude at 
his feet? 

An incident of exceeding interest is the 
appearance of the angel to strengthen our 
Lord in the great weakness and loneliness 
which came upon him in his agonizing struggle. 
Angels are very intimately connected with the 
story of Christ. It was an angel who an- 
nounced to Mary the coming incarnation. It 
was an angel who sounded to the shepherds 
the first note of the birth of Jesus in Bethle- 
hem, and a great company of the same heavenly 
host who sang the anthem in the astonished 
ears of those who watched their flocks. Angels 
ministered to Jesus in the wilderness, after his 
forty days with the wild beasts and the temp- 
tations of Satan. It was an angel, also, who 
announced his resurrection to the women who 
came seeking him in the tomb ; and angels 
were the comforters of the disciples when 
they gazed after his retreating form at his 
ascension. So it does not seem strange tha.t 
in this hour of lonely agony one of these 
heavenly ^dsitors who were so interested in his 
work of salvation should appear as his com- 
forter. Surely there is no angel more inter- 
esting to us than this messenger of consolation 
to our Lord in this dark hour. 



278 THE ANGEL IN THE GABBEN. 



On a certain occasion, when Rev. J. Robert- 
son had been preaching a series of sermons on 
"Angels in their Revealed Connection with the 
Work of Christ," Dr. Duncan came into the 
vestry and said : " Will you be so kind as to let 
me know when you are going to take up the 
case of my favorite angel ? " 

" But who is he, doctor ? " 

" Oh ! Guess that." 

" Well, it would not be difl&cult to enumerate 
all those whose names we have given us." 

"But I can't tell you his name; he is an 
anonymous angel. It is the one who came 
down to Gethsemane and there strengthened 
my Lord to go through his agony for me, that 
he might go forward to the cross and finish my 
redemption there. I have an extraordinary 
love for that one, and I often wonder what 1 11 
say to him when I meet him first." 

We have no reason for not believing the 
angels to be as much interested in us as they 
were in our Saviour. It is not a dumb, dead, 
material world ; it is a world tremulous with 
eternal things, a world full of spiritual realities. 
Angels are looking on and taking an interest 
in our conduct. In our lonely hours of sorrow, 
when weakness comes upon us, and human 
fellowship seems to fail, as it did with Christ, we 



THE ANGEL IN THE GABBEN 279 



may be sure that the angels of God are hovering 
near, ready to comfort us and strengthen us. 
In a world such as ours this is of infinite im- 
portance, for sorrow must be the common lot 
of all. 

An Indian prince once sent Prince Bis- 
marck a pair of strange doves, which came 
from a little island in the Pacific known as 
Blood Dove Island. These doves, on account 
of a blood-red mark on their breasts, are called 
"doves with bleeding hearts." There were 
many newspaper comments as to the propri- 
ety of such a gift to the stern old statesman 
who was known so long and so widely as the 
man of blood and iron. Whatever one may 
think about that, it is sure that the dove 
of peace in this world must still carry a bleed- 
ing heart, and every Christian will experience 
his hours of agony. In such a time only the 
consciousness which Christ had of the nearness 
of the spiritual world, and the certainty of 
heavenly association, can give strength to the 
soul. 

Dr. G-eorge H. Hepworth tells how he was 
one day riding with a comrade through some 
of the grandest scenery on the face of the 
earth. They were toiling up the last spur of a 
mountain so high that the clouds would have 



280 THE ANGEL IN THE GABDEN 

rested on its summit had there been any in 
the sky. They ahnost seemed to have left this 
little globe behind them and to be on their way 
to another world. Naturally they talked of 
that G-reat Beyond which was apparently not 
far distant. His comrade spoke freely of a 
loss he had suffered, A little child had been 
called from the family circle — had sped away 
in the night and gone where no human eye 
could follow her. With a broken heart, but 
still in somewhat stoical language, he referred 
to that vacant chair. Gone ! gone ! " was his 
despairing exclamation. Dr. Hep worth listened 
to the story, and at its close quietly remarked : 
" Yes, gone, but not gone far ! In the brighter 
land we will see her again." "If I could 
believe that," he said, after a little, "nine- 
tenths of the burden would be removed. But 
to feel that such farewells are forever, that is 
very hard ; " and the strong man trembled with 
suppressed emotion, while tears made it im- 
possible to continue the conversation. 

Of how little worth is anything in this 
world, if this world is all ! The world gets its 
value from our faith that its atmosphere is full 
of angels; that there is a shining stairway 
that leads up to God, and another world where 
all that is good of this shall be harvested. 



THE ANGEL IN THE GABBEN. 281 

Surely it is true that " if love can die, then love 
is only prolonged agony; hut the conviction 
that love can never die strengthens, broadens 
and ennobles the soul." 

Perhaps I speak to some "who are now con- 
fronting such an hour of struggle. The very 
air you breathe seems to be full of enemies 
and your progress is contested at every point. 
But you need not fear so long as you main- 
tain your faith in God, and are conscious of 
the presence of his angels, who in answer to 
your prayer nerve your arm to renewed 
strength. To all human eyes the odds may 
seem to be greatly against you, but with the 
hosts of Grod on your side, you are certain to 
win. He who surrounded Elisha at Dothan 
with a mountain full of chariots of fire, is 
able to strengthen you in any battle that is 
in your path, and to aid you in cutting your 
way through all opposition. 

Just how one comes into this conscious- 
ness of communion and fellowship with the 
spiritual world peopled with Grod's angels no 
one can ever adequately describe in human 
language. It is the miracle of simple faith 
and childlike confidence and prayer. One of 
the most remarkable surgical cases on record 
was witnessed recently in Cleveland, Ohio. 



282 THE ANGEL IN THE GABDEN. 

A little girl about five years old, while romp- 
ing on the floor, accidentally ran a needle 
into her right knee-joint. In attempting to 
pull it out, the father broke off the bit of 
steel, leaving more than half of it embedded 
in the flesh, and when she was taken to the 
doctor, repeated probing failed to locate the 
fragment of the needle. At the doctor's sug- 
gestion, the child was taken to the power- 
house of an electric company and placed on 
the dynamo in such a manner that the right 
knee-joint pressed against a powerful magnet. 
When it was withdrawn the troublesome bit 
of steel clung to it, and the experiment was 
a perfect success. The surgeons could not 
explain the power of the magnet to draw 
the steel out of the limb, but they knew 
that it would do it, and therefore they used 
it. So I could not give a scientific explana- 
tion of the power of faith to eliminate sin 
from the heart, to lift the sinner out of the 
mire and clay, and fill his mouth with songs 
and his soul with angelic communion; but 
I know that it has that power, and that 
every one who yields himself to Christ in 
childlike confidence and self-surrender be- 
comes a part of the flock of the Shepherd 
King, and is able to sing: 



THE ANGEL IN THE GABBEN. 



The King of Love my Shepherd is, 
Whose goodness f aileth never ; 

I nothing lack, if I am his, 
And he is mine forever. 

" Where streams of hving water flow 
My ransomed soul he leadeth, 
And, where the verdant pastures grow, 
With food celestial feedeth. 

" Perverse and fooHsh, oft I strayed, 
But yet in love he sought me, 
And on his shoulders gently laid. 
And home, rejoicing, brought me. 

In death's dark vale I fear no ill 
With thee, dear Lord, beside me ; 

Thy rod and staff my comfort still. 
And thou before to guide me. 

And so through all the length of days 
Thy goodness f aileth never ; 

Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise 
Within thy home forever." 



A FRIEND OF JESUS WARMING 
HIMSELF AT THE ENEMY'S FIRE. 



" Did not I see thee in the garden with him ? " — John 
xviii. 26. 

This question of the servant in the house 
of the high priest brings out very clearly 
the strange character of Peter's sin. The 
servant himself seems to have been aston- 
ished that any one who had shared Christ's 
vigil in the Grarden of Grethsemane could now 
be denying him. Peter had had such pre- 
cious opportunities of fellowship with Jesus, 
and had gone with him through so many 
experiences, both of joy and sorrow, of de- 
feat and victory, that it seemed strange he 
should have so collapsed in this peculiar 
hour of the Saviour's loneliness and trial. 

It is well for us to permit this to suggest 
the sacred fellowship which every one of us 
has enjoyed who has been accepted in the 

284 



AT THE ENEMY'S FIEE. 



285 



circle of friendship of Jesns Christ. We, too, 
have been in the garden with him. We have 
known the beauty and graciousness of the 
garden of his heart. We have known the 
truth of his words which John records : "If 
a man love me, he will keep my words : and 
my Father will love him, and we will come 
unto him, and make our abode with him." 
Many of us have been with him, also, in 
the garden of suffering, and have rejoiced 
in the fidelity of a Friend who seemed all 
the more real to us because of our trial. 
There are many friends for sunshiny days, 
but Christ never deserts us in time of storm. 

An old lady who for many years has been 
a most devoted friend in trouble to her neigh- 
bors, and to many poor people, found her eye- 
sight failing, and while on a visit to a niece in 
Boston went to an oculist to obtain a pair of 
spectacles. 

" My dear madam," said the young oculist, 
after a careful examination, " there is no dan- 
ger to be apprehended if you take proper 
precautions, although your eyes at present 
are not in as good condition as I could wish. 
The glasses will be of great assistance, of 
course. Besides that, however, I should ad- 
vise entire relaxation of the nerves for some 



286 



A FRIEND OF JESUS 



time to come. You should be free from an- 
noyance and excitement, and even from care, 
for the next six months. And, above all, 
my dear madam," he added impressively, 
"you should avoid all trouble and worry. 
Do not associate with sickness and distress. 
The effect of such things is to increase the 
difficulty which you experience." 

"Why, child," said the old lady, "you 
mistook my meanin'. I came to get fitted to 
a pair of specs so I could better help people 
that are in trouble and distress. I wasn't 
calculatin' to wear 'em to heaven, but right 
here in this world of sin and trouble. I'm 
afraid maybe you'll have to fit me all over 
again ! " 

Jesus Christ is a friend who sticks to us in 
this world of sin and trouble and will never 
desert us to our foes. No wonder that the 
high priest's servant was astonished that Peter 
should desert such a leader, and no wonder 
that the world now expects that those who 
assume fellowship with Christ will be faithful 
to him and his cause. 

Sad effects always come from unfaithfulness 
on the part of the friends of Jesus. If we 
fail, we discourage the other friends of 
Christ. Every man who is faithful under trial 



AT THE ENEMY'S FIEE. 



287 



encourages his brethren, as in line of battle 
one brave man steadies trembling soldiers on 
either hand, and one self-possessed leader may 
be able to stop a panic. On the other hand, 
the cowardice of one may stampede a whole 
army. When the spies came back to the 
camp of Israel after their sconting trip into 
the promised land, they all agreed that 
it was a rich country and a beautiful place 
to live, and they brought back the most 
wonderful clusters of grapes and the sweetest 
honey; but some cowards among them told 
of the giants who were so large that the spies 
felt like grasshoppers in their presence, and 
their cowardly example communicated itself to 
the whole army, so that, in spite of the coura- 
geous attitude of Caleb and Joshua, they turned 
away from the very door of the promised land 
to forty years of wandering in the wilderness. 

Such conduct on the part of a friend of 
Christ has sad effects upon those who do 
not know him. How impossible it would ever 
have been for Peter afterwards to have made 
converts to Christ in the house of that high 
priest ! They would have remembered him as 
the man who denied his Lord in the hour of 
danger. Contrast Peter's conduct, and its 
natural effect, and the action of Paul when he 



288 



A FBIEND OF JESUS 



was a prisoner for Christ's sake in Rome. He 
was so faithful to his Lord that the house of 
Nero was honeycombed with Christianity until 
Paul could speak in his letters of " the saints 
of Caesar's household." An inconsistent Chris- 
tian can never know what sad results may 
come from a single hour's failure to do his 
duty. On the other hand, our fidelity to Christ 
in times of peculiar trial may do more in an 
hour to make those who witness it believe in 
our Lord than years of ordinary service. 

A very curious and beautiful letter was once 
written to President Lincoln, that would cer- 
tainly have given him keen pleasure if he had 
read it, but he never did. In 1863, some pirates 
from Peru captured and carried off some 
natives from the Marquesas Islands in the 
South Seas. One of them was the son of a 
powerful chief, and the father made a vow that 
he would, for revenge, eat the first white man 
who fell into his hands. A man named Wha- 
lan, the first mate of a New Bedford whaling- 
ship, was before many months captured by 
the Marquesans ; he it was who must furnish 
a feast for the cannibal chief. All the people 
of these islands, however, were not cannibals. 
Among them was a native missionary from* 
Hawaii, named Kakela. Kakela had just 



AT THE ENEMY'S FIBE. 



289 



received a present of a boat from a church 
in Boston, a valuable six-oared boat that he 
needed much in his missionary work. He set 
about trying to save Mr. Whalan's life ; but the 
chief would give him up only on one condition 
— that he should have the new boat in ex- 
change for the captive. Kakela bought him 
at that price and helped him to leave the 
islands. The story came to President Lincoln's 
knowledge, and in the midst of the terrible 
cares that the life-and-death struggle of the 
nation threw on him, he characteristically 
found time to send a message and a new boat 
to the poor South Sea missionary. Kakela 
wrote a letter of thanks in return, which closed 
with these sentences: "As to this friendly 
deed of mine, its seed was brought from your 
great land by certain of your countrymen who 
had received the love of G-od. It was planted 
in Hawaii, and I brought it here that these 
dark regions might receive the root of all that 
is good and true, which is love. How shall I 
repay your great kindness to me ? Thus David 
asked of Jonathan, and thus I ask of you, the 
President of the United States. This is my 
only payment, that which I received from the 
Lord — love. May the love of Jesus Christ 
abound toward you till the end of this terrible 



290 



A FBIEND OF JESUS 



war in your land." Before the letter reached 
the "White House, President Lincoln had died 
at the hands of the assassin. 

So there is only one way that we can repay 
our Saviour for his sacrifice in our behalf, and 
that is by giving to him our love and fidelity. 
Anything less than loving faithfulness in life 
and in death is unworthy of us and unworthy 
of him. 

We cannot show this love for Christ in any 
way where it will count for so much as in 
being careful to always throw our influence 
on the side of Jesus so as to lead others to 
love and trust him. The true Christian can 
never inquire, with Cain: "Am I my bro- 
ther's keeper ? " The whole teaching of Chris- 
tianity is that we are our brother's keepers 
in so far as it is possible for us to influence 
him. We do not live to ourselves. The Chris- 
tian man or woman who feels that he might 
be able to moderately drink wine or beer, dare 
not lose out of the question the weight of 
his example on others to whom a single glass 
of strong drink is like a match applied to a 
magazine of gunpowder. There are many 
other places where the same law applies. In 
the question of amusements and recreations 
the Christian man or woman, in the very 



AT THE ENEMY'S FIBE. 



291 



nature of the case, must ask not only if what 
they are tempted to do is wrong in itself, but 
whether their influence and example will be 
used to make a weak brother or sister stumble 
and fall into sin. There are many things 
that are on the border-line, as it were, many 
questions of conduct that have to do with 
disputed territory between what is Christian 
and unchristian. In every such case the 
wise Christian will run no risk of warming 
himself at the enemy's fire. It is better for 
us to walk on the open highway of holiness, 
where all may see that our feet are clean and 
our hands washed from every questionable 
enterprise. Whoever follows us there will 
walk safely. No hon shall be there, and no 
ravenous beast shall go up thereon." 

No temporary pleasure which may come to 
a Christian by indulging in doubtful pleasures, 
and no worldly success which he may gain by 
indulging in questionable business enterprises, 
can repay him for the sad loss of an unshad- 
owed conscience before God and a testimony 
for Christ before his neighbors that is clear 
and unmistakable. Poor Peter found no joy 
in wandering from his Lord, and shivered over 
the enemy's fire as the cowardly lie stuck in 
his throat. 



292 



A FBIEND OF JESUS 



A wealthy man of Ithaca, New York, dis- 
appeared from his home awhile ago, and after 
many weeks of search he was found in an 
almshouse in Connecticut. He had wandered 
away from home, suffering from mental trou- 
ble, and for weeks, while his friends were 
scouring the country on his behalf, this man, 
who was the owner of a beautiful home, where 
luxury and comfort waited his every wish, 
was living amid the hard surroundings and 
subsisting on the unpalatable food of an alms- 
house. The Christian who has known the 
joys of communion with Christ, and has 
shared the feast in the kingdom of heaven, 
and then wanders back to the world's alms- 
house to seek for comfort or pleasure, is as 
lacking in wisdom as was this unfortunate 
man. 

But how great was the tenderness of Christ 
to Peter in that sad and disgraceful hour ! As 
Professor Henry Drummond very impres- 
sively points out, it was not Peter who turned 
and looked on the Lord when the cock crew 
for the second time after his denial, but it 
was the Lord who turned and looked upon 
Peter. When the cock crew, that might have 
recalled him to himself, for he was in the very 
act of sin : but he did not turn ; he was like a 



i 
I 



AT THE ENEMY'S FIBE, 



293 



horse that has taken the bits between his 
teeth, and is running to his ruin. But the 
Lord turned and looked upon Peter. Surely 
Drummond is right when he reasons that 
there is nothing more sensitive in all the world 
than a human soul which has once been quick- 
ened into its delicate life by the touch of the 
divine. Men seldom estimate aright the ex- 
quisite beauty and tenderness of a sinner's 
heart. "We apply coarse words to move it, 
and coarse, harsh stimulants to beat it into 
life. And if no answer comes, we make the 
bludgeon heavier and the language harder 
still, as if the soul were not too fine to respond 
to weapons so blunt as these. It is a great 
blunder, such as David perceived when he de- 
clared that it was the gentleness of Grod " 
that had made him great. The soul is as fine 
as a breath, and still preserves through misery 
and cruelty and sin the marvelous delicacy 
which tells how near it lies to the Spirit of 
God who gave it birth. Peter was naturally, 
perhaps, the coarsest of all the disciples. Our 
picture of him is a strong, sun-browned fish- 
erman, robust and fearless in disposition, hot- 
tempered and rash, a man who would bluster 
and swear — as Peter often did until Christ 
took hold of him, and, through infinite ten- 



294 A FBIJEND OF JESUS 



derness and gentleness, mastered his spirit 
and made him a saint. Oh, the tenderness of 
Jesus Christ that looked, no doubt, through 
tear-filled eyes, on Peter, as he shivered over 
the enemy's fire ! 

He is the same tender, loving Christ now, 
and if some of you have been painting your 
own portrait into Peter's story of sin and fail- 
ure, I pray Grod you will continue and follow 
Peter in his penitence. "There is a greater 
fact in Peter's life than Peter's sin — a much 
less known fact: Peter's penitence. All the 
world are at one with Peter in his sin ; but 
not all the world are with him in his penitence. 
Sinful Peter is one man, and repentant Peter 
is another ; and many who have kept his 
company along these well-worn steps to sin 
have left him to trace the tear-washed path of 
penitence alone. But the real lesson in Peter's 
life is the lesson in repentance. His fall is 
a lesson in sin which requires no teacher, but 
his repentance is a great lesson in salvation. 
And Peter's penitence is full of the deepest 
spiritual meaning to all who have ever made 
Peter's discovery — that they have sinned." 
I am very sure this message must come from 
God to some of you. You are conscious of 



AT THE ENEMY'S FIEE. 295 



the bitter loss whicli has come to your own 
heart and life because of a lack of supreme 
fidelity to Jesus. Like Peter, you have fol- 
lowed Christ at a great distance. Instead of 
seeking your highest joy in the service of the 
Lord, you have made that service a secondary 
matter, and have sought for real warmth and 
comfort, not in the Bible, not in the church, 
nor in self-sacrificing fellowship with Jesus 
Christ, but at the fire of the enemy, among 
people and associations whose spirit is worldly 
and, if not hostile to Christ, at least indiffer- 
ent toward him. Do not, I beg you, go on 
in such a course. Call a halt here and now to 
a career which can only end in despair. Better 
to follow Peter out to tears of repentance, 
that shall issue in joy and lead you on to a 
Pentecost of victory and a crown of glory, 
than continue your cold and cheerless associa- 
tion in the camp of the enemy. Christ will 
forgive you, as he did Peter, if now, when you 
see his loving, reproving eyes upon you, and 
feel the sting of penitence, you turn to him in 
loving appeal. Peter went away from the ene- 
mies of J esus after his repentance, and went 
back again to the old loving fellowship with 
the friends of Christ. It is there that he is 



296 



A FBIEND OP JESUS. 



found after the resurrection. So, if you have 
grown cold and wandered to the enemy's fire, 
the surest way back into fellowship with the 
Lord is a repentance that will bring you again 
into close and tender relation to the disciples 
of Jesus. 



CHEIST FAINTING UNDER THE CROSS. 



He bearing his cross went forth." — John xix. 17. 
They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name : him 
they compelled to bear his cross." — Matt, xxvii. 32. 

We know from this diversity of statement 
that although Christ started out from Pilate's 
judgment-hall bearing his own cross, he had 
not gone far before Simon, a man from Africa, 
probably a black man, was forced into service 
by the soldiers and compelled to carry the cross 
for him. We are sure that they did not do it 
through any kindness to J esus ; but the pain 
and suffering and long abstinence from food 
which he had undergone left him weak, and 
they doubtless feared that he would not live 
to be crucified, and so, rather than have the 
horrid sport spoiled, they pressed Simon into 
carrying the heavy load to Golgotha, where 
the crucifixion was to take place. This weak- 
ness on the part of Christ must have come very 
soon after leaving the hall, for John is the only 

297 



298 CHBIST FAINTING UNBEB THE CB0S8. 

one of the four biographers of Jesus who 
recalls the fact that on leaving the hall he was 
bearing his own cross, while Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke all make special mention of Simon's 
being compelled to carry that sacred burden. 

In the great cathedral at Antwerp there is a 
series of splendid pictures which represent 
Christ on his way from the hall of judgment 
to Calvary. In the first one of these pictures 
the Saviour stands calm and erect. His great 
physical exhaustion has not yet made itself 
dominant, and, buoyed up by his exalted 
spirit, the body has not yet given way. In the 
second picture, however, there is every indica- 
tion of speedy collapse, and his body is bend- 
ing under the weight of the cross, until, as you 
look, your heart beats quick with a desire to 
get your own shoulder under the load and 
relieve him by your fresh strength. In the 
third picture he has fallen to the ground 
beneath the great burden, and it is at this 
point that Simon, happening along, is ordered 
by the soldiers to take the cross from off its 
prostrate victim. 

We do not know about Simon, whether 
he was a good man or a bad, but we know 
that this cross must have been very unex- 
pected to him that day. Whether he had 



CHBIST FAINTING UNBEB THE CBOSS. 299 

been in the company^ looking on during the 
trial of Jesus, or whether he had overtaken 
the procession in the street, in either case we 
are sure that he had not expected to carry this 
cross for Christ. He did not volunteer to do 
it, but did it under compulsion. I have no 
doubt that that other Simon, whose surname 
was Peter, in the long years of his after 
ministry, never ceased to regret that he had 
not kept close to Christ and volunteered to 
carry the cross of J esns on that black Friday 
which we have learned to call Grood. What a 
romantic and heroic experience that would 
have been for Simon Peter! But it came 
very unexpectedly to this Simon of Cyrene. 
Is it not true that the crosses are always com- 
ing to ns unexpectedly ? "Who of ns does not 
bear crosses because we must ? 

A minister was driving through a moun- 
tainous region one bleak November day. It 
was cloudy, and the air was raw and chill with 
a threat of snow. A turn in the road brought 
him near an old weather-beaten house. In his 
astonishment he stopped his horse suddenly. 
A little woodpile was heaped in front of a 
tumble-down shed, and an old woman, thinly 
clad, with only the protection of a handkerchief 
tied over her head, was chopping wood with 



300 CHEIST FAINTING UNDER THE CBOSS. 

great vigor. The chips were flying fast, and 
so intent was she upon her work that she had 
not heard the sound of the wheels, and did 
not hear his salutation until it was repeated. 

" Why are you doing such cold, hard work ? 
It is too much for a woman's strength," said 
the minister, looking with pity at her slender, 
bowed figure, and gray hair. 

" Yes, I s'pose it is," was the answer ; " but 
I have to." 

Further tact brought out the fact of much 
severer service. She lived alone with her 
infirm, bedridden husband, and not only cared 
for him, but managed somehow to do the whole 
work of their small place. 

" And he's been sick going on seven years — 
ever since he had a shock of the numb palsy," 
she stated, in a matter-of-fact way ; adding, as 
an item of no special consequence, " and I ain't 
what you call rugged, myself." 

But how can you do it all ? " said the won- 
dering minister, with thoughts of his own care- 
fully sheltered womankind in his heart. " It 
is surely too hard and discouraging for you." 

Like an embodiment of endurance, she 
stood, ax in hand, evidently in haste to go on 
with her work. Something flashed from her 
faded eyes as they dwelt for a moment upon 



CHBIST FAINTING UNBEB TEE CROSS. 301 

the warmly clad gentleman in his comfortable 
carriage. But all she said was, I have to," 
and then she turned to her chopping and the 
chips flew again. 

That woman was a Christian philosopher. 
We are likely to be deluded into thinking, 
sometimes, that to be compelled to do a thing 
under the pressure of the inevitable is some- 
thing hard and dreadful. But have we any 
right to feel that way ? Is it not rather an indi- 
cation that it is Grod's will ? And if that is so, 
it is the best thing that can happen to us. David 
prays : " Teach me thy way, 0 Lord ; lead me 
in a plain path." What is that but praying that 
the way shall be shut up to just the one path 
so that he can't make a mistake ? Of course, 
our crosses sometimes come to us through our 
own folly and sin ; but if we are sincerely try- 
ing to do right, and unexpected crosses lie in 
the way, and we are compelled to take them 
up whether we will or no, we ought to take 
them up readily and make the best of them, 
for in every such cross we shall be sure of the 
sympathy and fellowship of our Divine Master. 

We ought to learn also from this study 
that sudden weakness and threat of failure 
does not mean that all is hopeless for future 
success. Christ, who seemed so near fainting 



302 chuist fainting unbeb the cboss. 

and failure under his cross, went on through 
his great sacrifice with matcliless courage and 
self -composure; and so may we rise out of our 
weakness through the same divine strength 
which was given to him. The devil is always 
trying to make us believe that some tem- 
porary collapse that may have come from 
ill health, or a hundred other local causes, is 
the end of hope, and we might as well give 
up. A few croaking doubts and fears can 
make a fearful amount of noise. 

I have heard of a man who came to a hotel- 
keeper and asked him if he would buy two 
car-loads of frogs'-legs. 

" Two car-loads ! " exclaimed the astonished 
landlord. " Why, I couldn't use them in twenty 
years." 

" Well, will you buy half a car-load ? 
"No.'' 

" Twenty or thirty bushels ? " 
"No." 

" Twenty or thirty dozen ? " 
"No." 

" Two dozen?" 
"Yes." 

"A few days later the man returned with 
three pairs of legs. 

"Is that aU?" said the landlord. 



CHBIST FAINTING UNBEB THE CBOSS. 303 



"Yes; the fact is that I live near a pond, 
and the frogs made so much noise that I 
thought there were millions of them; but 
I dragged the pond with a seine, drained it, 
and raked it, and there were only three frogs 
in the whole thing." 

The devil is a^ble to handle his frogs of 
doubts and suspicions and fears in the same 
way. You need not think you are the only 
person that after faithfully doing good for 
a long time has been suddenly beset by the 
enemy and scared into believing that there 
was nothing left to do but to faint and die. 
Moses thought it was all up with him, and 
fled away from Egypt into the desert, and 
herded sheep for forty years — he that had 
been educated for a king. Elijah, after his 
splendid triumph on Mount Carmel, ran like 
any other coward before wicked Jezebel, and 
hid his head in the sand under a juniper-tree, 
and begged to be allowed to die. Poor 
Jonah! Even being swallowed by a whale 
was not enough for him; he must have also 
the lesson of the withered gourd. But Grod 
was tender in all these cases, and infinitely 
compassionate. Don't be discouraged. Christ's 
greatest triumph came after he fainted under 
his cross, Easter dawn was only three days 



304 CHBIST FAINTING UNDER THE CBOSS. 



away. God has a to-morrow for you, if you 
will pour out your heart at his mercy seat. 

" Beyond the heartache and the falling tear, 
Beyond the days with sorrow's presence drear, 
Beyond the shadows filled with nameless fear, 
Waits God's to-morrow. 

" So courage, heart ! press upward day by day, 
And o'er thy path let hope shed this bright ray, 
That in God's own good time, some sweet, glad day, 
Shall dawn his morrow." 

Out of fainting hours of poverty and cross- 
bearing comes wealth too rich for the weigh- 
ing of earth's scales. Raphael, the great 
Italian painter, whose marvelous pictures are 
worth fabulous sums of money, was a very 
poor man when young, and had some hard 
experiences. Once, when traveling, he put up 
at an inn, and remained there, unable to get 
away through lack of funds to settle his bill. 
The landlord grew suspicious that such was 
the case, and his request for a settlement 
grew more and more pressing. Finally young 
Raphael, in desperation, resorted to an inge- 
nious device. He carefully painted upon a table- 
top in his room a number of gold coins ; and, 
placing the table in a certain light that gave 
a startling effect, he packed his few belong- 



CHEIST FAINTING UNBEB THE CBOSS. 305 

ings, and snmmoned his host. " There," he 
exclaimed, with a lordly wave of his hand 
toward the table, " is enough to settle my bill 
and more. Now kindly show the way to the 
door." The innkeeper, with many smiles and 
bows, ushered his guest out, and then has- 
tened back to gather up his gold. When he 
discovered the fraud his rage and consterna- 
tion knew no bounds, until a wealthy English 
traveler, attracted by his anger, discovered 
the value of the art put in the work, and 
gladly paid the landlord many times the price 
of the artist's bill for the table. So out of 
burdened, cross-bearing lives to-day come the 
works of spiritual insight and genius which 
wealth and ease would never develop. Christ 
never could have been what he has been to 
our world if he had been born in a rich 
banker's house in Jerusalem and had lived 
a life of wealth and self-indulgence. It is 
the Christ born in a manger, reared in a 
carpenter's cottage, who went about on foot, 
who was lonely, and tearful, and fainting — 
that is the Christ who has captured the heart 
of the world and enriched it forever ! Do not 
imagine that all the wealth is gone out of 
that gold-mine yet. Days of sorrow, times 
of weakness, dark hours when we faint under 



306 CHBIST FAINTING UNDER THE CBOSS. 



the cross, have their value, and if we keep our 
hearts steadfast in fellowship with Christ, all 
life's trying experiences shall work together 
for our good. 

I cannot say, 
Beneath the presence of Hfe's cares to-dayj 

I joy in these ; 

But I can say 
That I would rather walk the rugged way 

If him it please. 

I cannot feel 
That all is well when darkening clouds conceal 

The shining sun ; 

But then I know 
God lives and loves — can say, since it is so, 
^ Thy will be done.' 

I do not see 

Why God should e'er permit some things to be, 

When he is love ; 

But I can see. 
Though often dimmed through mystery, 

His hand above. 

" I may not try 
To keep the hot tears back, but hush the sigh, 
^ It might havo been, ' 
And try to still 
All rising murmurs, and to God's sweet will 
Eespond, * Amen ! ' " 



CHEIST TRIUMPHING ON THE CROSS. 

" Truly this man was the Son of God." — Mark xv. 39. 

This is the testimony of the officer who had 
charge of the crucifixion of Christ. This man 
was a Eoman soldier, to whom the execution 
of Jesus was simply a matter of official duty. 
We do not know what his personal feelings 
toward Christ had been before, but it is quite 
probable that he knew or thought very little 
concerning him. He doubtless received the 
command to put Christ to death by crucifixion 
with very much the same thought and feel- 
ings that he would have had if the prisoner 
had been any one else, or one of the two 
thieves who were delivered over to him for 
punishment at the same time. But this man 
had a most excellent opportunity to study the 
conduct of Jesus under supreme trial, and the 
result of that study and observation was that 
this hard-headed, veteran Roman soldier was 

307 



308 CHRIST miUMPHING ON THE CEOSS. 

convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. 
This was a great triumph for Jesus, 

The triumph of Jesus on the cross was a 
triumph of love and forgiveness over anger 
and revenge. He was being treated with the 
greatest severity, and the mob were crying 
out at him with contempt; but he met their 
anger with compassion, their contempt with 
pity, their railing with prayer, and their ven- 
geance with tenderness. Was there ever such 
tenderness as that illustrated in the triumph 
of Christ on his cross ? 

Dr. Meyer recalls the story of a poor dis- 
tracted man who used to travel up and down 
one of the provinces of France, going from 
house to house, wandering from village to 
village, accosting the men, women, and chil- 
dren whom he met, always with the same 
question : "I am looking for tenderness. Can 
you tell me where to find it ? " The simple 
country folk made light of his innocent ques- 
tions, and would say : " Have you not found 
it yet ? " No," would be the sad reply; ''and 
yet, I have searched for it everywhere." 
" Perhaps you will find it in the garden." Off 
he would hurry. The gardener would refer 
him to the stable, and the stable to the next 
house, and the next house to the next village; 



CHBIST TEIUMFHING ON THE CEOSS. 309 

and so, mournfully, to the end of life, the poor 
weak-minded man, half conscious of his hope- 
less search, half realizing the ridicule with 
which he was everywhere received, died with- 
out finding it. 

This simple story, so full of pathos, is sug- 
gestive of what multitudes of people are ever 
illustrating. Their lives are a search for this 
marvelous grace of human tenderness, and 
often a search in vain. But no man ever 
searched in vain for tenderness at the feet of 
Jesus Christ. How wonderfully his tenderness 
triumphs in his prayer on the cross for his ene- 
mies ! Call up the scene before you — the three 
crosses standing in a row, with all eyes fas- 
tened on the central cross, to which is nailed 
the Christ. The crowd vent all their spite 
and cruel feeling on him. They rail at him. 
They say : " He saved others ; himself he can- 
not save." And at first, both the thieves, in 
spite of their agony, join in the abuse of 
Jesus ; and they, too, shout at him : " If thou 
art the Christ, save thyself and us." Then 
the lips of Christ move, and the noise of the 
crowd is hushed to listen. They doubtless 
thought he would rail back in return; but 
from those patient lips came the strange 
reply, not addressed to them, but to God: 



310 CHBIST miUMPHING ON THE CBOSS, 



" Father, forgive them ; for they know not 
what they do." That prayer won a great 
triumph at once in the case of one of the men 
who was being crucified. He had never seen 
a man like this. Poor fellow! he had con- 
sorted with bad men, and he knew what anger 
was, and vengeance, and he could harden his 
heart against any sort of rebuke or threat of 
jjunishment ; but before this Divine Being 
who was reviled, and yet reviled not again, 
and who jjrayed for his murderers with such 
infinite tenderness, the hardness of his heart 
broke down. He could have resisted any kind 
of threat of future punishment from Jesus, 
and retorted to it with bitterness, but to have 
Christ x^ray for him with such love in speech 
and tone melted down all his hate, and he 
cried out: "Lord, remember me when thou 
comest into thy kingdom." Ah, what a tri- 
umph was that ! It was a triumph not only 
over the man's hardness of heart — it was a 
triumph over his sinful nature ; and Christ's 
forgiving tenderness cleansed that wicked 
heart as Jesus answered : " This day thou 
shalt be with me in paradise." The sinful 
heart of this man, which had been the cause 
of all his wicked conduct, was suddenly 
changed and transformed. 



CHBIST TBIUMPHING ON THE CBOSS. 311 

Men are not sinners only because they 
break Grod's law, but they violate the law of 
God because they are sinners in their hearts 
and characters. Dr. W. A. Robinson gives a 
very simple but clear illustration of this 
important truth. He was surprised, one day, 
to find that his watch was running too fast. 
It had been good, and keeping correct time ; 
but here it was " transgressing the law." He 
knew that the fault was not with the hands. 
It had not suddenly become unreliable because 
the hands were sinners, but the watch itself 
had in some way become deranged, and caused 
the erratic movement of the hands. To set 
them back would do no permanent good ; the 
trouble was inside. He took his watch to a 
competent jeweler for inspection. He sub- 
jected it to some sort of a test, and in a moment 
said : " The trouble is, it has been magnetized ; 
it is charged with too much electricity." 

" Why, I don't know how that could have 
been," the minister protested. 

"Oh, it was probably the result of an electric- 
car ride, and stole in unawares ; but that is 
neither here nor there, how it got in; the 
problem now is to get it out." 

" But can't you regulate it — slow the hair- 
spring a bit ? " the doctor suggested. 



312 CHBIST TRIUMPHING OJV THE CBOSS. 

" No ; yon would have it forever running too 
fast or too slow; the only thing to do is to 
demagnetize it," was the jeweler's reply. 

Now that is the way with a sinful soul ; a 
man does wrong because he is himself wrong 
at the heart. The whole moral nature has 
been magnetized by evil. A subtle influence 
of wickedness and worldliness has in some 
way taken possession of the affections and 
powers of the soul, and given the whole nature 
a wrong bias, and nothing will ever make it 
right, or make it possible for the man to do 
right, until that is expelled. There is the 
deadly secret of sin. The uncontrollable tem- 
per, the pride, the desolating explosion of 
passion and lust and appetite, the jealousy 
and envy that ever and anon spring from 
ambush — all these are only manifestations of 
the real wrong which is in the heart, which is 
sinful and must be cleansed by divine power. 
David had the right thought when he cried 
out : " Create within me a clean heart, O God ; 
and renew a right spirit within me." And 
Jesus, who wrought that wondrous triumph 
in the salvation of the poor dying thief on the 
cross, is able to work the same glorious trans- 
formation in any one. 

Christ's tiiumph on the cross was the 



CHBIST TEIU3IPHING ON THE CBOSS, 313 

triumpli of the mind and heart, the trinmph 
of the spirit, over pain and suffering and 
death. None of the things men fear when 
permitted to do their worst had the power to 
dim the victory of Christ's supreme ideal 
which he had marked out for himself as the 
Saviour of the world. The devil is always 
tempting us, when in times of trial and sorrow 
we are nailed to our cross, to believe that the 
noble ideals with which we were once inspired 
in happier days were too good to be true, and 
are not practicable in this e very-day world, and 
especially for hard times and days of disap- 
pointment. But Jesus deserted none of his 
ideals on the cross. Some one has written a 
very striking book entitled ^^The House of 
Dreams." The story begins with a conversa- 
tion between the author, who is the dreamer, 
and a sad-minded, hopeless friend, who inter- 
prets the multiplied sorrows and miseries of 
the world as proofs of the non-existence of 
an immanent, benevolent Grod. The dreamer 
and his pessimistic companion make tours of 
discovery through the streets of a large city, 
taking account as they go of the many people 
who are in poverty and trouble of body and 
mind. As they look upon these evidences of 
misery the hopeless man becomes more hope- 



314 CHBIST TEIUMPHING ON THE CBOSS. 

less and outspoken in his bitter skepticism; 
but all these sights fail to cloud the faith of 
the dreamer in a loving Heavenly Father who 
knows and cares for his children. One night 
the dreamer sees a great vision. Led by an 
angel, he enters the other world through the 
gate of sorrow. His experiences are described 
with remarkable power and interesting detail. 
There was one hall into which he was led 
where were placed the tablets of judgment. 
Each new-comer from the earth had to stand 
before two of these solemn tablets. One was 
of silver, the other was of gold. On the first 
the whole life of the gazer was reproduced ; 
on the latter all the good deeds he or she had 
done passed as in a living panorama again. 
Among those who stood in front of the tablets 
of judgment was a poor woman whom the 
dreamer remembered to have seen during the 
investigations which he had made in company 
with his hopeless friend. He had noticed her 
particularly because of the sad plight in which 
she seemed to be. She was shivering in the 
cold street, but keeping a child alive by the 
warmth of her thin breast. Now this poor 
woman stood before the tablets of judgment, 
and scene after scene in her past life rose 
before her. In one she was a girl who 



CHBIST TBIUMPHING ON THE CEOSS. 315 

stooped above her mother to comfort her. 
"When the mother took greedily, without 
thanks, the food she gave her, the girl said 
nothing, but smiled to see her mother eat. 
Other scenes followed in rapid succession. 
The girl grew into a heroine, all the more 
splendid because so utterly unconscious of her 
heroism. With hands that were hardened and 
made coarse by toil, she supported her mother 
until she died, and afterwards she toiled in 
the same way to support her invalid husband 
until he died ; and when these were gone she 
toiled for her children. Love was the only 
light in her darkened life, and she had clung 
to it with passionate devotion. Out of the 
greatness of her love and self-sacrifice came 
her transfiguration. As the pictures increased 
upon the golden mirror, the dreamer marveled 
to behold the figure of the human creature 
in foul rags grow fainter, and the spiritual 
figure, with face like the dawn of a summer 
morning, grow clearer. And at the last the 
rags and the poverty and the misery all dis- 
appeared, and only the spiritual, the beautiful, 
and the glorified was left ; for this was a woman 
in whom the ideal had survived amid all the 
degradations of the real ; so that the shining 
figure in the golden mirror was but the reflec- 



316 CHEIST TBIUMFHING ON THE OBOSS. 



tion of the woman who herself stood watch- 
ing it. 

So it may be with every one of us if through 
the trials and sorrows and crosses of life we 
are faithful in our devotion to the high calling 
to which we have been called through Christ 
Jesus our Lord. The trials of life are only 
temporary, but the spiritual graces which 
they produce in character are eternal. Cal- 
vary, with its bloody cross, its hooting mob, 
its blackened sky, its quaking earth and open 
sepulcher, was only a gloomy background for 
Easter morning, with its vision of angels and 
its glorified and triumphant Christ. We, too, 
may be triumphant on our crosses if we keep 
close to Grod, as Jesus did. 

It was the triumphant spirit of Christ, con- 
quering hate and revenge, exhibiting patience, 
tenderness, love, and confidence in God, that 
conquered the centurion and conquered the 
dying thief. If on your day of crucifi:sion 
you exhibit the same spirit of forgiveness and 
tenderness toward man, and loving confidence 
toward God, those who are beholders of your 
cross will also be persuaded of the divinity 
of your Divine Lord. 



HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERaEEEN. 



Because I live, ye shall live also." — John xiv. 19. 

The Christian life is an evergreen. Some 
trees go barren through the winter ; others, al- 
though they catch new impulse from time to 
time, and seem to rejoice in sympathy with 
the other trees in the forest in their new dress 
every springtime, never in any winter storm 
lose the green credentials of life. Human life 
was meant to be like that, ever fresh and 
abundant in the revelation of spiritual graces 
which come from sonship to God. 

The words of our text were spoken with 
the shadow of his death upon the cross already 
falling across the Saviour's path. He had 
come up close to death and taken its measure, 
and was speaking of his own immortality, over 
which death could have no power, and the 
fellowship of life which he was in the future 
to have with his disciples. We may be sure 

317 



318 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEJRGBEEN. 

that Christ meant something more than mere 
continued existence. Man's immortality is 
guaranteed to him in his creation. But the 
life which we have because of the life of Jesus 
is a life of spiritual elevation which comes to 
us in fellowship with him, and is a life over 
which the body can have little control. As 
Paul says, the earthly house of our tabernacle 
may be dissolved, but this glorious life of 
faith and hope and love which we have in 
friendship with Jesus shall be clothed upon 
with a house which is from heaven. 

The inner life is of infinitely more impor- 
tance than the outer life. Many now, as in 
the days of Jesus' life on earth, are careful 
to keep the outward life respectable and pre- 
sentable, while the inner life of the soul is full 
of hate, and anger, and envy, and greed — a 
veritable parallel to those whom Christ de- 
clared were whited sepulchers, full of dead 
men's bones and all uncleanness. A gentle- 
man was one day walking down the street, 
when he passed a store where a man was 
washing the large plate-glass show-window. 
There was one soiled spot which defied all ef- 
forts to remove it. After rubbing hard at it, 
using much soap and water, and failing to af- 
fect it, he found out the trouble, "It 's on 



HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEEGBEEN, 319 



the inside/^ he called out to some one in the 
store. There are a great many people who 
are striving to cleanse the soul from its stains. 
They wash it with the tears of sorrow ; they 
scrub it with the soap of good resolves ; they 
polish it with a chamois-skin of morality, but 
still the consciousness of guilt is not removed. 
The difficulty lies in the fact that the trouble is 
on the inside. It is the heart which is corrupt. 
So long as the fountain is bitter, it is useless 
to seek for a draught of sweet water from the 
stream that flows from it. The glory of Chris- 
tianity lies in the fact that Jesus Christ has 
power to cleanse the fountain of the heart and 
make the stream of life sweet at its source. 
Men only begin to live in this divine sense 
when they are aroused to high things by the 
Saviour's smile of forgiveness and good cheer. 

Christ has power to waken the dormant ca- 
pabilities and sleeping faculties of nobler life 
into being. A mother left her babe for a few 
moments in the care of a little brother. In 
her absence the boy sketched the picture of the 
child. When the mother returned and saw 
the picture, she gave the boy artist a kiss of 
approval. That kiss," said Benjamin West, 
many years afterwards, made me a painter." 
The kiss of Jesus Christ and the good cheer 



320 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN 

of his presence arouse holy ambitions until 
men and women under the magic of his touch 
feel that nothing that is good enough to do is 
too hard for them. Illustrations are every- 
where of the men and women who began to live 
only when they became acquainted with Jesus. 

Bishop Whipple, the great apostle to the 
Northwestern Indians, relates an incident 
which illustrates the vital power of Christ's 
gospel whenever it enters the human heart, 
even though it be under unfavorable circum- 
stances. Some thirty-seven years ago the 
bishop knew a great orator of the lower Sioux, 
Eed Owl. He never attended church, for he 
was afraid he would lose his influence among 
his people. One day he came into the school- 
room, and stopped before a picture, "Ecce 
Homo," and asked: ^^What is that? Why 
are his hands bound ? Why are those thorns 
on his head ? " With patient gentleness the 
school-teacher told again the old, old story of 
him who was rich and yet for our sakes be- 
came poor, and who wore the crown of thorns 
through his deathless love for us. Eed Owl 
was so touched by the story of the love of 
"the Son of the Great Spirit" that he came 
again and again to ask about Jesus. One day 
the bishop was going to Wabasha's village, 



HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 321 

and saw on the prairie a new-made grave; 
over it was a plain wood cross. He learned 
that Eed Owl was dead. He had been taken 
ill suddenly, and when dying he said to his 
young men : That story which the white man 
has brought into our country is true ; I have 
it in my heart. When I am dead I wish you 
to put a cross over my grave, that the Indians 
may see what is in Red Owl's heart." 

Christ is the power of Grod unto salvation to 
every one that believeth, whether he is Jew or 
Greek, Indian or negro, black or white, the 
wide earth around. He has power to resur- 
rect within us the spiritual life-plant which 
has been covered over by sin and choked out 
by worldliness. In a heart so earthly and sen- 
sual that to human eyes there is no evidence 
of divine sonship, Christ is able to cause to 
spring into verdure and life a new sprout shoot- 
ing out from the buried root of childhood. 

When Bishop Asbury was making a great 
preaching tour on horseback through the for- 
ests of South Carolina, in 1788, he came one 
day upon a negro who was sitting on a creek 
bank, fishing. 

What is your name, my friend ? " asked 
the bishop. 

"Punch, sah." 



322 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 

" Do you ever pray, Punch ? " 
"No, sah;' 

That was enough for the bishop. This was 
just the kind of man he was seeking. He got 
down from his horse, and had a long talk with 
this ignorant black sheep in the wilderness. 
For over an hour he talked with him, telling 
him in the simplest way he could the story of 
God's love for us in Jesus Christ. Then he 
got Punch down on his knees and prayed 
with him, bade him a brotherly good-bye, 
mounted his horse, and rode away. 

Twenty years passed away, and Bishop 
Asbury, one of the most tireless evangelists 
that ever lived, was again on a long preaching 
tour through the South. One day a travel- 
staiued negro came to the house where he was 
stopping, and begged to see him. It was 
Punch. He had walked seventy miles to get 
a glimpse of the man who had brought the 
dawn of life into the darkness of his " valley 
and shadow of death." The bishop learned 
then, for the first time, that he had no sooner 
passed out of sight, after that memorable in- 
terview twenty years before on the creek 
bank, than Punch shouldered his fishing-rod 
and made for the " quarters," his whole soul 
aflame with the wonderful truths he had 



HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEEGHEEN. 323 

heard. In that day he was a new man. He 
had been sleeping all the years before. He 
knew how to hoe and hunt and fish, but that 
he was a man who conld love and hope and 
pray and live forever had not penetrated into 
the depths of his soul. The bishop's story 
of Christ had been like a lightning-flash that 
had illuminated at once his intellectual and 
spiritual darkness. He went back to the 
plantation with his whole heart on fire, and 
soon developed talents which nobody had 
dreamed of his possessing, least of all himself, 
which made him an irresistible force for good 
in the community. It was not long before this 
strange new life which had ti^ansf ormed Punch 
began to tell on the lives of his fellow-slaves. 
They ceased to steal their master's rice, and 
drunken carousals on Sunday soon passed 
away. At first the overseer tried to stop 
Punch from preaching, but he might as weU 
have blown with a hand-beUows against the 
whirlwind. Punch's conduct under persecu- 
tion was so full of the spirit of Christ that the 
next order he received from the overseer was 
to come and pray for him. In a few months 
Punch was at the head of a large plantation 
church to which he ministered in spiritual 
things. 



324 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 

Twenty-eight years after Bishop Asbury's 
second visit, a Methodist missionary among 
the slaves, passing through that section of the 
country, heard of this church in the wilder- 
ness, and went to find it. Meeting a negro 
on the road, he inquired if there was a preacher 
on the plantation. 

Oh, yes, massa," said the man; " de bishup 
lib hyar." 

Following the slave's directions, he came 
after a little to the " bishup's " cabin, and 
knocked. The door opened, and Punch, now 
a hoary-headed patriarch, stood before him, 
leaning upon his staff. The old man regarded 
his visitor a moment in silence, and then, 
perceiving that he was a minister, lifted his 
eyes to heaven, and devoutly exclaimed: 
"Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart 
in peace: . . . for mine eyes have seen thy 
salvation." 

"I have many children in this place," he 
explained, "and I've been praying the Lord 
to send somebody to look after them when I 
am gone ; and now he has sent you, my child, 
and I am ready to go." 

Standing by his bed a day or two after- 
wards, the missionary heard him murmur: 
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 



HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEEGBEEN 325 

peace ; let — let — le — " and immediately his 
prayer was answered. 

The Christ who had power to transform the 
Sioux Indian, Red Owl, and the South Caro- 
lina negro. Punch, from ignorant heathen into 
men of Grod whose hearts were filled with spir- 
itual graces and whose lives were fragrant 
with goodness, has not lost his power to 
waken such life into being in human hearts in 
our own time. "We must never for a moment 
lose sight of this power or lose the emphasis 
of it in our Christian vfork. It is not a mere 
matter of education or morality which we 
have to preach to the world : it is the gospel of 
life — a gospel which has power to resurrect 
a man from the dead; a gospel which can 
purify a wicked heart ; a gospel which can set 
free a captive handcuffed by sinful habits, 
which can throw open prison doors and lift 
men ou t of the mire and the clay of the 
Slough of Despond. We must keep the em- 
phasis there. The whole air of Christendom 
gets full of doubt and hopeless with spiritual 
malaria when the emphasis is taken off of 
that, no matter where else it is put. We 
want life ! — life in the pulpit, and life in the 
pew; life in the prayer-meeting; life at the 
family altar; life in the aggressive work of 



326 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEBGBEEN. 

the church, which seeks sinners to transform 
them, and] seeks the fortresses of the devil to 
destroy them. 

This spiritual life which we have in fellow- 
ship with J esus Christ defies the power of age. 
Passing years leave their mark upon the body. 
The almond-tree flourishes on the head; the 
grinders cease from very lonesomeness ; the 
windows become vague and uncertain in their 
vision ; and after a while the pitcher of earthly 
life itself is broken at the fountain: but all 
this has no power to wither the green leaf of 
that spiritual life which is fed from the heart 
of God to those who are in fellowship with 
Jesus. 

Not only does the Christian keep the green 
leaves of spiritual life into old age and across 
the river of death, but the memory of his fidel- 
ity and the fragrance of his conduct remain 
ever green and beautiful after he has passed 
away from the earth. Thaddeus Stevens, a 
great political leader in his time, was visited 
in his last illness by a clergyman, who said 
to him It is no idle curiosity that has in- 
duced me to call on you, but a desire to know 
your sentiments on the subject of religion. 
Should you die in this attack, what shall we 
say about your faith in the Bible ? " 



HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVERGBEEN. 327 

Eaising himself in bed, adjusting his gown 
and cap, he said : The Bible, the Bible — 
take that away and there is nothing left." 

Pressed with the question as to a personal 
interest and experience, he said : " I do not pro- 
fess to have religion in that way, but my old 
Baptist mother had it, and I believe in my 
mother." The one thread that held the dying 
statesman to a possibility of faith and forgive- 
ness through Christ was in his mother's expe- 
rience and his faith in her. 

John Randolph, an earlier statesman in 
American history, once said : " When I try to 
make myself an infidel, I fancy I feel the hand 
of my mother on my head, and her voice 
sounding in my ear as she taught me to say : 
' Our Father which art in heaven.' " 

Let us not forget that if our memories are 
to grow green with immortal comfort and 
blessing for our children, and for the people 
that are to come after us, it will be because 
there has been in us, in our conversation and 
our deeds, the seeds of this divine life which 
is victorious over sickness and death and the 
grave. 

If we live this life with Christ on earth, we 
do not need to worry about the life which is 
to come. Christ will take care of that. He 



328 HUMAN LIFE AS AN EVEEGBEEN. 

says himself that when death comes to his 
friends he shall never be permitted to come 
alone. The white horse and his rider may 
come alone to the man of the world and of 
sin, but he never comes alone to the Chris- 
tian. Our Lord has promised his friends that 
he will come to receive them and welcome 
them to life in the mansion which he has pre- 
pared for them. A balsam fir does not lose 
its evergreen quality when transferred from 
some low valley to the hills. So the Christian 
whose heart is full of spiritual communion, 
and the branches of whose life are ever green 
with hope and love, will not lose his quality 
when transplanted from the valleys of earth 
to the highlands of heaven. It is not that life 
we should be careful about, but this life. The 
interesting question is not how we are going 
to live there, but how are we living here ? If 
we are risen with Christ now, and have our 
affections set with him upon things that are 
above, death will come as a promotion at 
Commencement-time, and set us free from 
the school-time conditions of earth for the 
wide career toward which our Lord has been 
leading us. 



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